The actor will have to go through a journey into darkness to emerge in the bright light. Dramatically and psychologically more demanding than physically. Q: Your films reflect socio-political reality - would your Milkha look like him?Ī: The role is extremely demanding. Even my 'Rang De Basanti' was a bio-pic in a very strange way. Not too many people are such role models. This kind of a subject comes to an actor once during his lifetime. Any actor would kill for the part of Milkha Singh. We're starting the film end of this year or early next year. It was Milkha Singh's son, the champ golfer Jeev, who coordinated the whole thing.Ī: No idea. Milkha's family has been very cooperative. But I'd be depicting his life from age 13 to the age of 28. We got to know things even his family didn't know.

During our conversation, I opened doors for him that even he had closed. His life has such a resonance.Ī: I've met him numerous times in Chandigarh, talked to him for hours. This guy had nothing and still he made spectacular success of his life. The theme is - 'zindagi se bhago nahin, zindagi ke saath bhago'. He somehow made his way to Delhi on refugee trains.Ī: That's what attracted me to the subject and not so much his athletics. How at the age of 13 he watched his whole family being massacred in undivided India. Then I came to know more details about his life. I used to go practising in the National Stadium in Delhi for swimming every day. I've been a sportsman myself during my student days. One has heard jokes about him, how he was known as the Flying Sikh, used to run barefoot, how he came from Pakistan. But the idea on Milkha Singh worked out better. Q: What made you decide on a movie on Milkha Singh?Ī: I was keen on doing a historical love story 'Mirza Sahiban'. It's very relevant to today's life.' Mehra says he hasn't finalised any actor to play the role of the legendary runner who made history by coming fourth in the Rome Olympic Games in 1960. 'The theme is - 'zindagi se bhago nahin, zindagi ke saath bhago' (don't run away from life, run with life). We want Milkha Singh's story to go out to the world,' Director Mehra told reporters. Milkha's story has a universal resonance. This would be my most ambitious project striving to break linguistic barriers. 'I want Milkha's story told in Hindi-Punjabi, to be dubbed in French, Polish, etc.

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