After movies on legendary athlete Milkha Singh and boxer Mary Kom, it’s time for a biopic on wonder boy Budhia Singh, who ran marathons from the age of four, and his coach late Biranchi Das.
Odia filmmaker Soumendra Padhi is making a Bollywood film on Budhia which will feature Manoj Bajpai in the main role as Biranchi Das. Source said the movie is now in the editing level and the director has already availed the permission of late judo coach Biranchi Das’ wife Gitanjali. Many parts of the movie have been shot in Bhubaneswar and Puri along with in Mumbai and Delhi to make it a natural one.
The movie is scheduled to be released in October, sources said. Notably, in 2004 Budhia was sold for Rs 800 to a salesman who used to ill-treat him. The wonder boy then came in contact with judo coach and orphanage operator Biranchi Das. Once Das asked Budhia to go on running as part of a punishment for bullying an inmate, and he forgot about the kid. Four hours later, Das found the boy still running and that’s when he started training Budhia for marathons. later on, allegations were made against Das for exploiting the child which led loss of Budhia’s custody with Das. In 2008, Das was shot dead in Bhubaneswar allegedly by gangster Raja Acharya.