Following the much-awaited biopic on India's most successful cricket captain, MS Dhoni, a film on another skipper, the controversial Mohammad Azharuddin is also in the works.
Azharuddin, known for his artistry with the bat played 99 Tests and 334 ODIs for India and was quite successful leading the side as well. But his life took a drastic turn at the latter stage of his career after he was banned for life by the BCCI for his involvement in match-fixing.
"The rise and fall of Mohammad Azharuddin is one of cricket's saddest morality tales. He was the humble bank clerk from Hyderabad who entranced a nation with the suppleness of his strokeplay, rose to become his country's captain, then plummeted in disgrace when details of his dalliances with bookmakers were made public in 2000," Martin Williamson and Andrew Miller aptly wrote in their column for Cricinfo.
According to Mumbai Mirror, Emraan Hashmi will be playing Azharuddin and is currently in Sydney to watch the fourth Test match between India and Australia to gear up for his role.
He has also been watching cricket matches closely to learn the finer points of the game.
Regarding Emraan’s close observation, director of the film, Tony D’ Souza commented, “It is one thing to read about a match in a script and another to actually watch it. Emraan is a perfectionist in such matters. We will exchange notes when he returns to see if we can incorporate any of his observations into the script."
Along with Emraan, Prachi Desai will also be seen in the film playing Naureen, first wife of Azharuddin. It is also being reported that the role of Sangeeta Bijlani, cricketer’s second wife will be played by Kareena Kapoor. However, Prachi insisted that other than Emraan, no one has been signed as yet.
Emraan Hashmi was last seen with Humaima Malick in her Bollywood debut, Raja Natwarlal.