Parineeti Chopra has always been one of those actors who get into the skin of the character and makes it their own. Right from her debut Ishaqzaade and then Hasee To Fasee and many other films, Pari has left fans surprised with her brilliant performances. But her upcoming Saina Nehwal biopic will surely be the toughest challenge for the actress till date and we hear that she is prepping intensely to become the iconic badminton player who has done India proud on so many countless occasions. The biopic is being produced by Bhushan Kumar, Divya Khosla Kumar and Krishan Kumar.
The first massive challenge that any actor faces while doing a sports biopic is actually a two-fold issue. First, an actor has to become very good at the sport the film is based on and secondly, picking up the body language and mannerism of the actual sporting icon and then replicating it exactly on-screen. Saina is a champion badminton player with incredible discipline. Pari feels emulating her way of life and learning to play the game like her is the first step to actually becoming her on screen. Like Saina, Pari is starting her day at 5 am every single day, with badminton practice every alternate day at a suburban sports club!
Pari says, “I am actually quite excited to get into the character of Saina, get into the skin of a world champion because playing a fictional character might not have been as exciting as playing a real character. Here, I have somebody who has extensive documentation on exactly how she plays, who she played every match in her life. Every single moment that she has ever played badminton is on screen! So, to kind of imbibe that and to kind of learn that is really exciting for me as an actor. I wanted to do a sports biopic for a long time so this project is absolutely perfect!”
Parineeti also reveals some details of her intensive prep for the role, “This project is absolutely perfect for me because I will have to be in this discipline for the next 9 months of my life and I am pretty kicked about it. I just hope that the entire sports community, Saina herself and everybody who has expectations from this film are finally happy about what we achieve. My prep usually starts at 5 am because we have taken up courts where we didn’t want any kind of distraction. We start playing at 6 am till 8 am!”
Interestingly, the Kesari actress is herself a badminton player. She talks further about her support system to accomplish this mammoth task, “Since I am actually playing badminton to prepare myself, I have a great physio team and world class players with me to train me and condition me. Amol sir’s team has given me all the support that I need, Yonex the badminton brand has given me all the gear that I need, so there is lot of support from a huge team around me who is working around the clock to make sure that I have everything that I need to become the character. It’s really cool and I am really happy but honestly it makes me really nervous. I have given myself at least 3-4 months to completely learn the sport, the way I need to and only then I will go on set because I want to do justice to the film and to Saina. It’s a huge honour for me to play and live the life of one our country’s biggest sporting icon.”
Image Source:- stylegods, Instagram/nehwalsaina/parineetichopra
Image Source:- stylegods, Instagram/nehwalsaina/parineetichopra