Nagpur: Even as the director Nagraj Manjule’s name is being dragged in #MeToo movement, the Nagpur schedule of shooting of his directorial venture Jhund – a biopic on city based slum-soccer activist Vijay Barse has been reportedly cancelled. Mega star Amitabh Bachchan’s has been roped in to play the lead in Jhund and the star was to visit city for the shooting.
Barse is the founder of Slum Soccer, the organization that hosts Indian children every year for the Homeless World Cup.
It is a football tournament that brings together more than 500 players representing more than 50 countries facing social marginalization. The 2018 Homeless World Cup is taking place in Mexico City from November 13-18. Barse’s Slum Soccer is hosting a national football tournament where promising young Indian talents are selected for the Homeless World Cup each year.
For Jhund, in Bachchan plays the role of a coach who encourages street children to form a football team, a 45-day shoot was planned in Nagpur. He met the street children and rehearsed with them before the shoot. Nagraj wanted his appearance to be as authentic as possible.
“The language of the film would be better presented in Nagpur, which is why I chose the streets of this city,” he said.
The road was blocked earlier when the original producers withdrew from their commitment. It is at this moment that Bhushan Kumar and T Series intervened. But now, with #MeToo, Nagraj, the movie’s fate remains unclear. Bhushan had given the order of march to Subhash Kapoor, the director of his biopic Mogul, after his name appeared in an old case of sexual harassment. Will he do the same with Nagraj?
