Ajay Devgn announced the filming of Maidaan on social media on Monday. Earlier in 2018, Zee Studios had announced a film on football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, under whose leadership the Indian football team won the Asian games in 1951 and 1962 .
Ajay Devgn will portray the lead character of Coach Rahim in Maidaan which is being helmed by Badhaai Ho fame director Amit Ravindernath Sharma. Tamil actor Keerthy Suresh will play the female lead as Ajay’s wife in the film.
The 50-year old took to his official social media handle to share the first look poster of the film along with the announcement that read, “#maidaankicksoff today!”
The poster bears a tagline which says, “The Golden Era of Indian Football (1952-1962)”
The Indian football team won a Gold at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta and reached the semi-finals under the leadership of coach Syed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
A globe figure with football as the globe features in the middle of the poster. A lighted stadium appears below and ‘Maidaan Kicks Off Today’ is carried above.
Maidaan is being produced by Boney Kapoor, Akash Chawla and Arunava Joy Sengupta.
Boney Kapoor had said in an interview, “I was amazed that not many are aware of someone as significant as Syed Abdul Rahim. He’s an unsung hero whose achievements must be saluted. His team had heroes like Chunni Goswami, PK Banerjee, Balaram, Franco and Arun Ghosh. It takes someone like Ajay Devgn to play Syed Abdul Rahim. With him on board, I can just hope that our film inspires youngsters to play football, and India soon to bring the World Cup home,” quoted India Today.
Maidaan will be shot in Indonesia, Rome and Melbourne to maintain authenticity of the historicity of sequence.
The film is slated to hit screens sometime around 2020.
#maidaankicksoff today! pic.twitter.com/hbkzd727rh
— Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) August 19, 2019
Elated and proud to announce a story never told as @ZeeStudios_ #BoneyKapoor & @freshlimefilms come together for a biopic on India’s legendary #Football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim, starring @ajaydevgn, directed by @CinemaPuraDesi, screenplay by @SaiwynQ, and dialogues by @writish. pic.twitter.com/vzaLJya67x
— Zee Studios (@ZeeStudios_) July 13, 2018