Not Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan to play the lead in Dhyan Chand biopic?

Mumbai: A biopic on the legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand was announced last year by none other than Mr. Karan Johar. But as far as development is concerned, nothing much has happened till date. The buzz is that Varun Dhawan, who had once turned down the director of the film Rohit Vaid’s offer, may now replace Sidharth Malhotra for the lead role.

The film came with its share of troubles too; first, first choice Varun Dhawan turned down the offer and secondly, both Karan and Varun did not want Rohit Vaid to direct the film but they could not cut him off as he had the legal rights. Johar was not too happy with the script as well.

Now Rohit’s National Award win (Best Animation Film for his directorial ‘Mahayodha Ram’) has reportedly caused a change of heart among makers who are contemplating to go ahead with the project. Vaid has reworked the script and is planning on approaching Varun again.

“The people involved knew that I’d bought the rights of Dhyan Chand and had offered it to them on the condition that I would direct. There was no issue! They only wanted some changes incorporated. I’ve reworked the script along with ‘Agneepath’ writer Ila Bedi,” Rohit Vaid reportedly told a daily.

The director went to a few actors- Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra- and Sid had reportedly given his nod to the biopic. But the director seems to have visualised Varun playing Dhyan Chand.

“…will approach Varun again with the new script… Shah Rukh Khan showed great interest, but he won’t fit the age group. Ranbir Kapoor is a friend and was also given a narration. He loved the story, but he was already doing another biopic (Sanjay Dutt), so he couldn’t do it,” he added.

An excited Rohit revealed the number of years he has invested on his ambitious project. “It took me five years to do research on him as nobody had a clue about him anymore and there’s hardly anything in his autobiography. We spoke to his son Ashok Dhyanchand and to many people in India and Pakistan. What we have now is very exciting.”