Remember the teenage girl who cycled 1,200 km with her injured father during the 75-day countrywide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic?
The girl, Jyoti Kumari Paswan, will play herself on the big screen in a movie on her epic journey. The film is titled Atmanirbhar.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Wemakefilmz, a nearly two-decade-old venture run by four friends, has bagged the rights to Jyoti Kumari's life story and the project is to set go on the floors in August.
Shine Krishna, who is helming the project, told the news agency, "The film will be shot in locations that were part of Jyoti’s journey from Gurugram [in Haryana] to Darbhanga [in Bihar]. It will be more fictionalized by including various other incidents."
The film will be made in Hindi, English and Maithili languages and dubbed into other languages, the director said. The actor to play Jyoti Kumari’s father is yet to be cast.
The makers have grand plans of releasing the film internationally by subtitling it in 20 languages.
Jyoti Kumari Paswan, 15, rode nearly 1,200 km on a second-hand bicycle with her injured father sitting behind her from Sikandarpur in Haryana to Darbhanga in Bihar when prime minister Narendra Modi announced a countrywide lockdown in March, covering the distance in eight days.
The girl was later lauded by everyone from politicians and bureaucrats to business tycoons and foreign celebrities, including US president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. Jyoti Kumari has also been offered a trial by the Cycling Federation of India, which she later declined, saying she wanted to focus on her studies.