Bollywood inspired by Wadoo’s success

Sikandar To Hit Screens On March 27

ABID KHAN

Srinagar, Mar 11: The success of Valley’s international footballer, Mehrajjudin Wadoo has inspired a Bollywood director to make movie on him. The movie would be released all over the country on March 27. The movie titled ‘Sikandar’ is a story about a young boy who has a dream to play football for the national team. It’s about his aspirations and challenges and how his life unfolds when one fine day he finds a gun on his way to school. The film is a suspense thriller, which also deals with the innocent people in a place, which has witnessed decades of violence. Sikandar is directed by Piyush Jha who has earlier directed comedies like King of Bollywood and Chalo America. Apart from direction he has also written the script of the suspense thriller. Piyush Jha has been inspired by the success of Wadoo to write this story and he has been saying that since the promos of the film were released all over. In one of the interview, Piyush said, “I read the story of boy MehrajjudDin, a footballer started playing for Mohun Bagan, now East Bengal. The first sports person from Kashmir to do so. At the age of 14 –15, he used to hang out with a group of guys typically the rock element types. His father then took him to his cousin who also a coach makes his energies focused on the game.” “Sikandar is based in Kashmir and on Kashmir. It does not venture into politics, nor is it a message-oriented film. Sikandar has been structured like suspense thriller, issues confronting are held at the backdrop. This type of story can happen in Hyderabad or America and elsewhere” he added. The film stars Kuch Kuch Hota Hain and Parzania fame Parzaan Dastur now in his teens, Ayesha Kapur of Black fame along with R Madhavan, Sanjay Suri and Arunoday Singh in key roles. Sandesh Shandiliya, Justin-Uday and Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy have scored the music of the film. The film has been mostly shot in Pahalgam. Wadoo is currently playing in I-League for East Bengal club and is regular member of Indian football team. Talking to Greater Kashmir on phone from Kolkatta he said, “I came to know about the movie through one of my journalist friend here in Kolkatta. After going through the previews and promos on Internet, it was clear that movie is inspired by my journey.” Asked, will movie help valley’s football, he said,“ If the story revolves around football, then it will definitely help our football to grow. But I think there will be touch of disturbances also in it.”

Published in Greater Kashmir on Mar 12-2009: link http://greaterkashmir.net/full_story.asp?Date=12_3_2009&ItemID=6&cat=4