Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 30, 2018)

Mirror (September 30, 2017) had earlier reported that the National Award-winning Marathi filmmaker, Nagraj Manjule, who had directed the 2016 romantic drama Sairat, will be making his Bollywood debut with a film titled Jhund. Amitabh Bachchan was to play a retired sports teacher who starts a slum soccer movement. We have now learnt that the 75-year-old actor has opted out of the project.

“Mr Bachchan had committed himself to the film last year, but the shooting kept getting delayed without any clarity. As he had to give those dates to other filmmakers and was unable to wait any longer, he has decided to opt out,” a source close to the development informs Mirror. The source adds that there were some other issues as well. “This included copyright. Mr Bachchan has returned the signing amount to the makers,” says the source.

A self-proclaimed fan of Big B, Nagraj had admitted that he grew up copying the actor’s clothes, speech and mannerisms. He would go to school with his shirt tails tied, like Bachchan from Yash Chopra’s 1975 crime drama Deewar and would be reprimanded by his teachers. He had gone on to reveal that his film touches upon the issues of drug-abuse and crime and will portray how sports can help reform kids. “I started working on the script after Sairat was wrapped up. Even though it is based on a real-life character, the way I’ve written the part and the film, it moves far away from the source,” Nagraj had added.