Producers announce Pullela Gopichand biopic on his 44th birthday

Pullela Gopichand, chief national coach for the Indian badminton team, celebrates his 44th birthday today with an added zest. Producers Fox Star Studios and Abundantia Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. have announced a biopic on his life and career.

The former badminton player won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 (the second Indian player to do so) and runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy, where his star players, Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi, have trained.

Interestingly, biopics on both, Nehwal and Sindhu, are in the pipeline. Shraddha Kapoor has signed on to play Nehwal in Amole Gupte's untitled film, while actor Sonu Sood is producing the film on the silver medallist from Rio, Sindhu.

Gopichand's biopic is yet untitled and still in the scripting stage. The film will be a bilingual, Hindi and Telugu. The film should go on floors by mid-2018.

Gopichand began playing badminton at age 11 and won the junior national championship at age 18. Three years later, he was named the national champion as well. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, in 2014.

A serious knee injury in the mid-1990s could have derailed his career, but he bounced back admirably and went on to win the All England Open Badminton Championships, just like his mentor, Prakash Padukone did.