Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who starred in MS Dhoni’s biopic, was found dead at his Mumbai residence on Sunday (June 14) afternoon.
In order to bring the real Dhoni to the reel world, Sushant had learned some of the cricketing tricks from former India wicketkeeper Kiran More.
See Also: Indian cricketers mourn the tragic loss of MS Dhoni-biopic hero Sushant Singh Rajput
On the day the tragic news of his demise came out, More spoke to The Indian Express and reminisced the time he had spent with Sushant.
“I remember the moment when Sachin Tendulkar was left stunned when he saw Sushant Singh batting. Sushant was working on a biopic of MS Dhoni and I was asked by the director Neeraj Pandey and the producer Arun Pandey to coach him on wicketkeeping and batting. A few weeks into the training, I remember Sushant practising the famous Helicopter shot of Dhoni. That’s when Tendulkar came to the training ground at BKC Bandra, a Mumbai suburb,” Kiran recalled.
“Tendulkar was watching from the gallery and when I met him later, after practice, he asked me, ‘who is this boy? He is batting so well. Itni achi batting kar rah hai!’ I told him that it’s the actor Sushant, who is preparing for a biopic on Dhoni. Tendulkar was so shocked and said, ‘he can play proper professional cricket if he wants to. He seems that good’,” he added.
More also opened up on his first interaction with Sushant, stating: “I had first met Sushant at the Taj Hotel Bandra and since I was a wicketkeeper for India, the director and producer had wanted me to coach him. Everything was fixed and we discussed how we will go about it.”
“It was a challenge for me to make an actor play like a cricketer and that too someone unorthodox like MS Dhoni. Sushant came with his spotboy, security guard, and a helper for the first session and I took him aside to tell him that from next day, he should come on his own, pick the kit bag, and enter the ground. I remember telling him, if you want to be a cricketer, you have to behave like one.”
He also talked about the actor’s dedication to pull off the challenging role.
“He took it to his heart. From the next day, he would carry his own kit bag and walk into the arena. He showed tremendous discipline; no matter what late-night shooting he had, he would be on the ground the next day at 7 am. And on rare days he came late, he would gamely take the ‘punishment’ of training for extra time or taking more catches than normal.”
“It wasn’t an easy role at all as he didn’t just want to hit the ball like a cricketer but he wanted it to do in the way Dhoni does. That style wasn’t easy but he worked so hard at it.”
“I never thought he would be so good, to be honest. He was hit on the face many times; on his chest and on the back as well. I used to get worried as he was an actor and his face is so precious to them but he never said anything. His hard work reflected in the movie. We have seen biopics of cricketers before like Azharuddin but Sushant was miles away in bringing the real Dhoni to the reel world,” Kiran More said.
(Inputs from The Indian Express)
