Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar along with Sanath Jayasuriya unveil the trailer of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan biopic titled 800 in Mumbai.
Best known for films like Slumdog Millionaire, Maatr, actor Madhurr Mittal will be seen playing the role of the cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan in his biopic. At the launch he shares, “The child inside me is crying with joy because it’s a moment. I can’t believe that the chance to play Murali sir has been bestowed upon me. I followed my captain in times of turbulence and smiled when I was doing well.”
Adding further, he tells, “The fights among the odds has come out strongly. This film goes much ahead of being just a sports film. Because there is a huge socio-political landscape and the journey that the country itself goes through. I hope we are successful. I ensured that his portrayal of the part doesn't look like a caricature and worked hard to imbibe his traits. It was also important for the actor to not crumble under the responsibility of playing a legend.”
“I was born in the 90s so I obviously grew up watching him. Initially, it was very daunting when I realised I had to play him. The second challenge was to get his look and accent right, for which we did many workshops. We tried many different looks. The most important thing that I felt was, even though we wanted my character to look like him, it shouldn't look like a caricature,” he reveals.
Director Sripathi shares, “Its a very special occasion for us. We waited for a long time for this. The first thing that was in my mind was making the movie on a legend. The film has to have that quality. We had wonderful support from my team. As an artist, we should have the primary responsibility to erase the boundaries between the people. The cast, creed, religion nothing is more important than humanity.”
“This is a story of a six years old boy, who grew up in an unfair world and was trying to find out his identity. He decides to create his own identity, thus he became a cricket legend. I feel, Sachin Tendulkar is an inspiration for billions and hence is the best legend to launch this trailer,” he concludes.
Muralitharan shares, “The film doesn't talk about my records; it talks about how I achieved the number of 800. It is all about the inside story. There are some stories that even I don't know because my director researched for two years, stayed in Colombo, went to my places, and met my friends. It’s a true story, so nothing has been added. We have shown what has happened.”
Sachin Tendulkar, who unveiled the trailer says, “I am here to wish my very dear friend Murali. People need to know this biopic as to what happened in his life. I remember meeting him up in 1993 for the first time thereafter, we continued to be good friends. He asked me to come and attend this event, I couldn’t refuse him.”
