Shoot for Saina Nehwal biopic begins next month, confirms Shraddha Kapoor

Actress Shraddha Kapoor signed to play Saina Nehwal in a biopic on the badminton player's life in early 2017. Since then Kapoor has gone on to shoot for Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Stree after finishing Haseena Parkar (2017), and has also been roped in to play the leading role in Nitesh Tiwari’s next opposite Sushant Singh Rajput. The biopic meanwhile hasn't gone on floors yet. 

The actress has been training in the sport under the watchful eye of Nehwal for a year, while shooting her other films. But the delay in the film's shoot led to a lot of speculations and negative reports around the project, including talks that it had been put on hold as Nehwal felt Kapoor needed a lot more training to get into her character.

In a recent chat with us, the actress revealed that there is no truth to these reports, and the shooting will begin in September. "Yes, the prep for Saina biopic is on. The shoot begins next month," she said. 

Last week, DNA, a daily, quoted a source in a report as saying, "It's been a year and apparently, Shraddha hasn't been able to ace the game. The Padma Bhushan recipient [Saina Nehwal] has been in constant touch with the team. She has allegedly told them that she will give a go ahead only when Shraddha is completely ready. If you aren’t good at the sport, it won’t take the audience any time to figure it out."

It turns out that it was mere speculation, even though its true that the training did take time. When asked why she didn't respond to all the negative reports in the media, Kapoor said that she does not like to "get affected by false news."

"I choose not to respond to something that is factually incorrect, be it anything. Its false news. I feel it is better to not get affected by it and focus on what you are supposed to do," said Kapoor. 

In May last year, Kapoor had told Cinestaan.com that the badminton training will be extensive and she is looking forward to spending time with Nehwal as part of the preparations. "It is important for me to give that much time before the film to prepare. I will have to train a lot, a lot! I have to give it my all," she had said. 

In January this year, writer and director of the film, Amole Gupte, had told PTI, a news agency, in an interview that he did not want to "rush" into the biopic which he had started work on in 2015. “I have already given two-and-a-half years of my life. I am used to this pace [of working]. There is a lot of preparation required for this film. We are at it,” the filmmaker had said.