Hawa Singh poster: Sooraj Pancholi is India’s star boxer in biopic

In the last decade, Hindi cinema has seen a number of biopics on different personalities, especially in sports. Now we have another sports biopic on the life of India’s star boxer Hawa Singh. 

The film will see Sooraj Pancholi essay the role of the boxer. The movie will be directed by Prakash Nambiar and produced by Sam S Fernandes and Kamlesh Singh Kushwaha. 

The first poster of the film was shared by Salman Khan, who is close to Pancholi, on his official Twitter page and wrote, “Hawa se baatein karega Singh.” Pancholi had made his big screen debut with Hero (2015), which was produced by Khan. 

The poster sees Pancholi in his boxing get-up. His face is obscured as he is gulping down a huge glass of milk. The rope boxing ring, strewn with hay and gunny bags, combined with Pancholi’s attire gives a very earthy feeling. 

This is rightly so since Hawa Singh was born in pre-Independence India in 1937 in Haryana. He was recognized as a champion boxer quite early in his career when he won the national championship for 11 straight years. He also won the gold medal twice in Asian Games in 1966 and 1970; both in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Singh won the Arjuna Award in 1966. After retirement, he became a coach, and was due to receive the prestigious Dronacharya award, but passed away 15 days before the ceremony on 14 August 2000 at the age of 62. 

Speaking about the film, Nambiar said in an official statement, “When I heard the inspiring journey of a young boy from Umarwas, Haryana becoming a legend of Indian boxing, I was moved to the core. It was a story that had to be told.”

Sharing the reason of casting Pancholi, he added, “When we were going through the possibilities of who can play Hawa Singh, we met Sooraj. We gave him a small brief and when he came back a couple of days later all prepared for the part, we didn’t see Sooraj, we saw Hawa Singh!”