A biopic on famous Indian weightlifter, Karnam Malleswari, was announced today, on the occasion of her 45th birthday. The yet-untitled Telugu project, to be directed by Sanjana Reddy, will also be made in Tamil and Hindi.
Accoding to an official statement from the makers, the film will be jointly produced by Kona Venkat and MVV Satyanarayana. The cast and crew will be announced soon.
The film marks the journey of Malleswari, who became the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Olympics. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she won the bronze medal in weightlifting.
The makers unveiled an announcement poster, whose tagline said, "Journey of a girl who lifted the nation."
On her birthday today, #MVVSatyanarayana and @KonaFilmCorp announce their next, a biopic on @kmmalleswari, FIRST Indian woman to win a medal at Olympics. A multilingual PAN Indian movie! #HBDKarnamMalleswari
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) June 1, 2020
Written by @konavenkat99
Directed by @sanjanareddyd pic.twitter.com/yMS4U2Rjo3
Venkat, who has been associated with films such as Mom, Geethanjali, Baadshah, Ready and Dookudu among many others as a writer, will also be scripting the film.
In an interview to The Asian Age newspaper in March, Venkat opened up about the project and the reason why he wanted to tell Malleswari’s story. “This film is going to be an inspiration for the present generation. A poor girl from a remote village in Srikakulm district won the bronze medal for India at the Olympics. That is definitely a big story to narrate,” he said.
“She has faced so many hurdles and problems to reach this level. It wasn’t easy. She told us her whole story and gave us permission to portray all the incidents in her life,” he added.