Ajay Devgn's first sports film on Indian coach Syed Abdul Rahim, directed by Badhaai Ho (2018) director Amit Ravidernath Sharma, will begin shooting this July for a start-to-finish schedule of four months. According to a report in daily tabloid, Mumbai Mirror, the pre-production work for the film, including look tests, has already begun.
The film will feature some professional footballers along with those resembling former players Chuni Goswami, PK Banerjee, and Jarnail Singh. PV Vinoy, the former player coach of the Western Railways team, has been coaching them.
The four-month shoot will take place in Mumbai (for one week) and later shift to Lucknow and Kolkata. The film is also expected to move abroad to either Jakarta, Rome or Melbourne for the international portions.
The period film will feature the golden years of the sport in India from 1951 to 1962. Rahim's team went all the way to the semi-finals at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and captured a gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Sadly, Rahim passed away from lung cancer on 11 June 1963.
Mahanati (2018) actress Keerthy Suresh is already on board the project as the female lead. The untitled film is produced by Boney Kapoor and Akash Chawla's Freshlime Films.