Parineeti Chopra, who replaced Shraddha Kapoor as the protagonist in the Saina Nehwal biopic, has started training for the role. The movie is directed by Amol Gupte and produced by Bhushan Kumar under the T-Series banner.
According to the actor, bringing to screen the life of Saina Nehwal, whose matches and playing style have been almost completely documented, was an exciting prospect. “I am actually quite excited to get into the skin of a world champion because playing a fictional character is not as exciting as playing a real character. Here, I have somebody who has extensive documentation on exactly how she plays, who she played every match in her life. Every single moment that she has ever played badminton is on screen. So, to kind of imbibe that and to learn that is really exciting for me as an actor,” the actress was quoted in an IE report.
The actress, who was incidentally on the look for a sports biopic, felt that the project was ‘absolutely perfect.’ Earlier, Shraddha Kapoor was roped in to play the protagonist. She had to opt out of the project reportedly due to professional commitments as well as dengue fever.
Parineeti Chopra says that it would take her at least 3-4 months to master the sport and learning the sport is necessary to do justice to the film and her character. “Since I am actually playing badminton to prepare myself, I have a great physio team and world-class players with me to train me and condition me. Amol sir’s team has given me all the support that I need. There is a lot of support from a huge team around me who is working around the clock to make sure that I have everything that I need to become the character. It’s really cool and I am really happy but honestly, it makes me really nervous,” she added.
Chopra also revealed her preparation plans. “My prep usually starts at 5 am because we have taken up courts where we didn’t want any kind of distraction. We start playing at 6 am till 8 am.”
The makers plan to wrap up shooting by this year and release the movie early next year.
Parineeti Chopra was last seen in Kesari opposite Akshay Kumar. The movie, directed by Anurag Singh and produced by Karan Johar, released on March 21 and has gone on to become a success at the box office.
Chopra also has movies like Dibakar Bannerjee’s Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar opposite Arjun Kapoor and Prashant Singh’s Jabariya Jodi opposite Sidharth Malhotra lined up for release this year.
