Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; June 24, 2015)

We were the first to tell you that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was playing the role of Sarbjit's sister Dalbir Kaur in Omung Kumar's Sarbjit biopic.

Sarbjit Singh was a farmer from Bhikhiwind in Punjab (just 5 kms away from the Indo-Pakistan border), who in 1990 while farming, inadvertently crossed over to Pakistan after having a couple of drinks, got mistaken as an Indian spy and was given capital punishment in 1991, but was not hanged. He was kept in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore for 23 years, before he was killed by inmates a few days after the death of Afzal Guru in India. During his 23 years in jail, his sister Dalbir Kaur, who treated him more like her son than her brother, got to meet him only thrice in jail and made it her life's agenda to get him released. While she finally did not succeed in getting him released, she is determined to reach his real story to the world through a film titled Sarbjit being made based on his life, that is being directed by Omung Kumar (the director of Mary Kom). The story of Dalbir's battle and finally defeat for not being able to bring her brother back alive, is not just touching but heartbreaking. We have now exclusively learnt that the method actor Randeep Hooda has been chosen to play Sarbjit. With two great actors Aishwarya and Randeep playing sister-brother in this biopic, it is certainly going to be a film to watch out for.