The actress had acquired rights to the film, to be directed by Shaad Ali, three years ago
Meena Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 7, 2017)

Earlier this year, Diljit Dosanjh bagged the Filmfare Best Debut Award for his Bollywood break, the Abhishek Chaubey directorial Udta Punjab (2016), in which he played a cop tackling drug menace. Now, Mirror has learnt that the actor-singer has been signed by actress Chitrangda Singh to play Sandeep Singh in a biopic on the hockey ace and India’s former captain.

Sandeep’s life, with its many highs and twists, is the stuff Bollywood dreams are spun around so it is not surprising that Chitrangda, who was previously married to golfer Jyoti Randhawa, wants to tell this sporting hero’s story on celluloid. The 31-year-old hockey player is currently employed with the Haryana Police as deputy superintendent. Sandeep, who played as a full back and was a penalty corner specialist, grabbed headlines when he made a comeback to the field after a freak incident. He was seriously injured by an accidental gunshot while travelling on the Shatabdi Express in August 2006 en route to join the national team that was to leave for the World Cup in Germany two days later.

For a while now, there has been talk of Chitrangda turning independent film producer. The Delhi girl who has made Mumbai her home, acquired the rights to the story almost three years ago and was keen to flag off the biopic much earlier but the hunt for the perfect actor to play Sandeep stretched on. At one point, the hockey ace who admitted to being a huge Ranbir Kapoor fan wanted the actor to play him after seeing him as a Sikh in Rocket Singh, but that didn’t happen.

Things started to fall in place only after Chitrangda tied up with Sneha Rajani of Sony TV. Together, the two ladies have been working on the project which is likely to roll later this year. According to a source, Shaad Ali has been signed to direct the film and all the creative heads concurred that Diljit was a perfect fit for the role.

During one of his overseas tours, Sandeep confirmed reports that Chitrangda had bought the rights for making a film on his life. “I’m excited that people will see my story on celluloid,” he had said.

Chitrangda remained unavailable for comment but an insider confirmed the news.