There was a strong rumour doing the rounds that Rohit Dhawan’s film, Dishoom has a character based on star cricketer Virat Kohli. The film, which stars John Abraham and Varun Dhawan as the leads, tells the story of a prominent Indian cricketer getting kidnapped 36 hours before the final match between India and Pakistan. The character of the cricketer in the film is called Viraj Sharma and the role has been essayed by Saqib Saleem.
At the trailer launch Varun said that he met Virat recently and told him about the film. “We met as we both support the same football team. I told him about the film and he knows that we have made something on these lines. He is quite cool about it.”
Director Rohit added that the cricketer shown in the film is a top batsman of Team India. “He is athletic, just like Virat Kohli. He is a match winner, again like Virat Kohli. But his name is Viraj Sharma and he is not Virat.”
He added that the premise is fiction, the script of which was written years ago. “It is entirely a work of fiction and was written years ago. Virat is the top cricketer in our country right now, so you can let your imagination fly and think whoever you want him to be,” said the director. Varun further added that the film is not against Pakistan and does not show the country in poor light.
He said, “I would like to clear this. There is no negative representation of Pakistan or any other country or community. It is a very positive representation. In fact, what we are trying to show is that for certain people, money is a religion. It’s not about being an Indian, Pakistani, Hindu, Muslim. We live in a capitalistic world where money is the biggest driving force for most crimes.”
