Sneha Mahadevan (DNA; June 25, 2015)

Ekta Kapoor’s biopic on Indian cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin seems to be suffering from some roadblocks. First, the makers couldn’t finalise on an actress to play his ex-wife Sangeeta Bijlani’s role.

Shortly after that, Nimrat Kaur, who was playing a lawyer walked out of the project. But lead actor Emraan Hashmi seems unfazed by the drama around the film. The first look that released a few days ago, received a great response and though a lot of people praised him for imbibing the cricketer’s body language perfectly, the actor says he has a long way to go.

“Playing Azhar is a huge responsibility. There is still a lot of work left — about 100 days of shoot, but I am not nervous. I am uncomfortable with praise and I thrive on criticism so I am not feeling any pressure. But when I met Azhar for the first time, it was surreal. When he held my hand to teach me to swing the bat in his trademark style, I was ecstatic. It was special because he is someone I have admired all my life. But I guess we as actors have the advantage of ‘action’ and ‘cut’ — something that they didn’t have in real life. But I have a long way to go until I can play like him,” Emraan says.

For Emraan, who by his own admission, was a below-average gully cricketer, his game has improved by leaps and bounds. He has been training with Azhar and is currently learning the finer nuances of the game from him. “My game has improved quite a bit since he taught me to play. I started training in January and now, I am much better. At least that’s what Azhar thinks,” he signs off.