Actor Shahid Kapoor will portray the role of former boxing champion and Asian Games gold medallist Dingko Singh in a biopic, a Bombay Times report stated.
Ngangom Dingko Singh from Manipur was the first and only Asian gold medallist boxer from India in the Bantamweight category.
Raja Krishna Menon of films like Airlift and Chef fame will direct the film.
Shahid Kapoor said that despite being a gold medallist, nothing much is known about the sporting legend.
“The thing that I loved about this story is that he is one of those who we don’t know much about. If a film like Dangal (2016) wasn’t made, we wouldn’t know as much about the Phogat sisters,” Bombay Times quoted the actor as saying.
Ngangom Dingko Singh received the Padma Shri in 2013. “At some point in his past, he had almost become a Naxalite. His life story is unbelievably crazy; it is very human and extremely inspiring. Such amazing stories of heroes need to be told,” said Shahid.
Shahid Kapoor spoke about Dingko Singh’s inspiring journey of battling cancer and defeating it just like a true winner. “Dingko is a cancer survivor, and he went through 13 rounds of chemotherapy. He has even gone on to say that his biggest win was surviving cancer and not the gold medal he won at the age of 19 at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. In 2017, Gautam Gambhir became aware of his situation and sent money for his treatment. Soon, people found out who he was, and 13 doctors came forward to help him. He is a sports star who survived cancer,” he added.