It’s raining biopics not only on Bollywood but on the entire Indian film industry. As we are aware that biopics of few sportspersons are in the pipeline, Telugu film industry is now making a biopic on former badminton player and current coach, Pullela Gopichand. Gopichand is a chief national coach of the Indian badminton team and Padma Shri awardee. The makers of the Gopichand’s biopic have decided to cast Telugu actor Sudheer Babu who made his Bollywood debut as the arch-villain in Sabbir Khan ’s Baaghi in 2016. Sudheer is not only an actor but also a former Junior Badminton World Champion and has played alongside Pullela Gopichand as a doubles partner.

“We were very clear that we wanted an actor who would look unrehearsed while hitting the cork across the net. We didn’t want to fake it at all. When Fox-Star and Neeraj Pandey decided to cast Sushant Singh Rajput as M S Dhoni, the actor didn’t have to prepare from the scratch, as Sushant was already a state-level cricketer. We were very sure we didn’t want an actor to come on board to play Gopichand and then take a two-week crash course in badminton,” says a source close to the development.

The film will be jointly produced by Fox-Star Studios and Abundantia Entertainment. It will be a bilingual biopic in Hindi and Telugu, which will chronicle the exciting journey of Gopichand, on and off the court. The scripting of the film is underway and the shoot will commence in mid-2018.