Olympics bronze medalist, Sakshi Malik, is game for a biopic on her life, but she is not sure who can essay her character. “Sultan released earlier and now Dangal. It’s good that two films have been made on wrestling. If someone wants to make a biopic on my life, I won’t mind but I have no actress in mind who can portray my role. That’s not my job,” she told news agency PTI at the logo launch of the Delhi Sultans team in the Pro-Wrestling League yesterday in New Delhi.
Aamir Khans’ Dangal, apart from wining rave reviews, has already earned close to Rs. 30 crore on the first day. The Harayana girl who earned the country laurels by bagging a bronze in the Rio Olympics is delighted at the fact that movies with wrestling as the theme are conceived by filmmakers. This trend, according to her will benefit the sport immensely. Both Dangal (Aamir) and Sultan (Salman Khan) have Bollywood’s biggest superstars in the lead and it means a lot for the wrestling fraternity. Sultan that hit the screens in July, netted more than Rs 300 crore in the domestic market and as per trade reports, Dangal can go on to become a bigger hit despite the demonetisation blow.
Talk of films on sports persons, earlier on, there has been a biopic on another Olympics bronze medal winning boxer, MC Mary Kom which had Priyanka Chopra in the lead. Filmmaker Amol Gupte is making a film on badminton star and Olympics bronze medal winner, Saina Nehwal too. And this year we saw the release of the Indian ODI and T-20 skipper MS Dhoni’s biopic that crossed the Rs 100-crore mark. It is almost a foregone conclusion that Sakshi’s view will be lapped by a filmmaker soon.
On a different note, Sakshi feels that there is an urgent need to have “two extended camps in foreign countries every year,” if wrestlers are expected to get quality preparation. “Before Olympics, we went to Spain for a training camp and we got to practise with a lot of quality wrestlers. I believe for better performances we need more foreign exposure where we compete with the top wrestlers from other countries,” opined the wrestler.
The Olympics is history and Sakshi is all focused on the Commonwealth Games to be held in Gold Coast and the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018. “Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are obviously my main target. I have started training two months back and it’s been good so far. I don’t intend to change my weight category (58 kg),” said Sakshi who was bought for Rs 30 lakh by the Delhi Sultans, an amount that has raised eyebrows keeping her stature in mind.
(With inputs from PTI)