Saina, the biopic of badminton champion Saina Nehwal starring Parineeti Chopra, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on April 23, the OTT platform announced on Friday. Directed by Amole Gupte, the film released in theatres on March 23.
The film explores Nehwal’s stint in Indian sports, childhood, love for badminton, and her journey from Haryana to Hyderabad to build her career. She was the first Indian badminton player to win the Olympic bronze medal in 2012. In 2015, Nehwal became the first Indian to rank as World No. 1 in women’s singles. She has won over 24 international titles in her career.
Talking about her role in Saina, Chopra said in a press release: “With this film, I have learnt that a biographical film comes with many challenges. My biggest challenge as an actor was to get into Saina Nehwal’s shoes, literally and figuratively, to stay true to the story and recreate her accomplishments and hardships. As an actor, I embraced each challenge, and I do think that I learnt a lot as a professional in the process. I worked on the physical appearance and the right body language, and I am glad it worked out in my favour.”
Saina is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Sujay Jairaj, and Rashesh Shah, co-produced by Vinod Bhanushali and Shiv Chanana under the banner of T-Series, Deepa Bhatia (Amole Gupte Cinema), and Front Foot Pictures.
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While Chopra had no releases in 2020, she was the only female Hindi film actor to have three back-to-back releases so far this year, out of which two were box office failures. While Saina earned Rs 1.17 crore at the box office, her other film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (which released on March 19) earned less than Rs 1 crore. Directed by Dibakar Banerjee, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar released after a year’s delay due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
She also appeared as the lead in Netflix’s The Girl on the Train, which released on February 26. It was the Hindi remake of an English film by the same name (directed by Tate Taylor and starring Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, and Justin Theroux) and was based on British author Paula Hawkins’ popular 2015 psychological thriller novel. The Hindi remake failed to impress critics and viewers.
Chopra will be seen next in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal along with Ranbir Kapoor.