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Saina biopic hasn’t hit the badminton net
Rubbishing reports that actor Shraddha Kapoor’s struggle with badminton is delaying the Saina Nehwal biopic, makers of the film say that shooting will start in February.
Titled Saina, the biopic on the badminton champion is in pre-production stage, says coproducer, Priya Gupta. The film’s director, Amole Gupte, had told the media in August, “Playing [Saina] will not be easy, so I want Shraddha to be ready before we start rolling.” On her rumoured lack of preparedness, Gupta says, “There’s absolutely no truth in the reports. We will start shooting at the end of February. Also, Shraddha was busy shooting for Saaho [costarring Prabhas].”
Shraddha had announced in April that she was on board for the Saina biopic; she began training in badminton a couple of months later. Soon after that, reports surfaced that she was unable to learn the game, resulting in a possible delay or the film getting shelved.
However, Gupta says that the initial training was more like Shraddha’s induction into badminton and the rigorous training will begin closer to the shoot. “Shraddha has done 3540 sessions of badminton [training]. The first part of the story is without badminton; the second schedule has badminton,” she tells us.
Since the second schedule is months away, “it makes no sense for Shraddha to train in badminton for six months,” says Gupta, adding that the more intensive training will start “as soon as we know the exact shoot dates”. The film is slated to release next year.