Aanand L Rai to direct biopic on chess great Viswanathan Anand

There will soon be an addition to the long list of sports biopics in Hindi cinema. The latest is one on chess champion Viswanathan Anand, to be directed by Aanand L Rai.

The news was shared by veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

The film, which is yet to be titled, will be produced jointly by Rai for Colour Yellow Productions and Mahaveer Jain under his banner Sundial Entertainment.

The movie is currently at the planning stage and the cast and crew announcement will take place at a later date. 

Born on 11 December 1969, Grandmaster Anand won the title of world champion as many as five times and remains one of a handful of players to have surpassed an Elo (method of calculating relative skills of players in games like chess) rating of 2800.

Anand was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1991-92, India's highest sporting honour. He was conferred with India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2007, becoming the first sportsperson to receive this honour.

The movie will be Rai’s next after Atrangi Re and Raksha Bandhan. Both films star Akshay Kumar. While Atrangi Re is in the making, Raksha Bandhan is yet to go on the floor.