Set to kickstart preparations for upcoming Abhinav Bindra biopic with the ace shooter, Harshvardhan Kapoor on why sportsmen may lead isolating lives
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 26, 2018)

“The tryst to do something genrebreaking is important. [One can] try and [then] fail, but don’t crib without trying,” says Harshvardhan Kapoor, in a bid to back his film choices in Bollywood. A period love story behind him, and an upcoming vigilante drama, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, up for release, Kapoor’s third venture too is anything but typical.

Soon after the release of the Vikramaditya Motwane-directed venture on June 1, the actor will jump headfirst into prep work for his next, Kannan Iyer’s biopic, based on ace shooter Abhinav Bindra. “It will be a time-consuming project, one that I’m certain will be hard to pull off. I have been spending time with Abhinav to understand his story, and his perception of success,” says Kapoor, adding that Adarsh Khurana, writer of Bhavesh Joshi Superhero will also co-write the Bindra biopic at his behest. “Right now, we’re focusing on locking the script. We are almost there.”

Given that it’s a sports biopic, a fair amount of physical preparation will be underway for Kapoor to ace the character in the film, based on Rohit Brijnath’s book on the shooter. “I have a range of shooting classes lined up. I have to be better acquainted with the 10 mm air rifle. I will also need to perfect the body language, a task that may take several months to ace. The film’s emotional core rests in the physical training. So, I need to feel how he did.” On his schedule is a weight loss program that will make him look convincing as a young Bindra. “I need to lose at least 10 kilos. The beard will need to go, and I will sport a buzz cut.”

Kapoor adds that even though the film will be inspired by Bindra, they will take liberties because life off screen “won’t always be cinematically correct”. Even though the former professional shooter’s public life — which saw him winning Gold at the Olympic Games in 2008 — has sufficient fodder to make for an interesting story, Kapoor says it is his life behind the scenes that will form the crux of their film. “We will dig into the mind of an obsessive athlete. It’s not just about having access to a gun and the range. It’s about the fervour the sportsman had, [the desire to shoot] not just 10s but perfect 10.9s. [He needs] to get to the centre of the seed within an apple. [Such fervour] inspires dedication. What it does is isolate a man. Such people can’t have a life or relationships. People can’t understand them because they don’t let others in. The narrative explores the equation between him [Bindra] and his father, their ups and downs,” says the actor, adding that the film will explore his life till the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Only recently, he took the rough draft to Bindra, and says it left him teary-eyed. “I was approached for this film by Vishal Bhardwaj, but he has now moved on. It’s now a home production.”