How do you become one of the world’s greatest cricketers? If you’re Muthiah Muralidaran, you develop your unique bowling style, one that most batters dread and even the gifted ones find hard to read. Result — you take a record-breaking 800 test wickets and 534 one-day wickets. The former Sri Lankan off-spinner built a golden career that will be remembered in the annals of history, and on the big screen.

On the occasion of Muralidaran’s 51st birthday today, director M S Sripathy has brought the first look of 800. The biopic borrows its title from the bowler’s record of taking the highest number of wickets in test cricket, one of his 16 world records.

Madhurr Mittal, best known for playing Salim in Slumdog Millionaire (2008), steps into the shoes of the player for the sports drama that will be released later this year in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Sripathy says the narrative will begin from Tamil Nadu, from where Muralidaran’s grandparents were sent to Sri Lanka by the British to work in tea plantations. To the director, the movie is a story of human courage. 

“800 is an inspiring story of a common man standing against all odds, who became a legend through his grit and determination. It captures the many faces of the cricketing icon from war-torn Sri Lanka, who became the greatest wicket-taker of all time. For those who know nothing of cricket, it is a poignant underdog tale. For those who have followed Murali’s turbulent career, it will show you the man behind the legend,” he states.

The biopic — shot in Chennai, Cochin, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and Australia — will span from 1977 to his test retirement in 2010. Mittal says it’s a huge responsibility to bring the story of the spinner, known for his doosra, to the screen.

He says, “We know Muralidaran sir as a cricketer, but there’s a lot in the film about him as a person, who has beaten the odds to emerge triumphant in life.”