Seldom are biopics around sports made on an entity still pursuing career at the highest level. When Neeraj Pandey made ‘M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ (2016), the namesake cricketer was still enjoying his final years of international cricket. It was a rare occasion, but as a two-time World Cup-winning captain, MS Dhoni deserved every bit of that respect.
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The late Sushant Singh Rajput, who was well-versed with Dhoni’s dialect, had essayed the role perfectly. He fetched widespread acclaim for his role and won several Best Actor awards alongside a host of other nominations that year.
After the release of the film, Rajput and other successful actors of 2016 namely Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh sat with senior journalist Rajeev Masand for a roundtable conference. Conducted by CNN-News18, Rajput admitted to watching an iconic and precious moment from ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 100 times to nail Dhoni’s expressions.
“Sir, I saw it for like 100 times”, Rajput answered Bachchan’s query around literally copying Dhoni’s expression from the World Cup-winning six.
MS Dhoni Was Vexed With Sushant Singh Rajput
Actors, far too often, have a tedious process of learning about the characters of the past, especially if it’s a biopic. As a general rule, personalities from the past are extensively researched and read by them to get into their psyche before taking on such a role.
However, as far as living people are concerned, one has a chance to ask countless questions. Not wanting to miss a golden opportunity, this was exactly what Rajput did with Dhoni despite the latter not being too happy about it. Assuming Dhoni understood the process of acting authentically, it still was exceedingly annoying for him to constantly talk about himself.
“It was a bit awkward initially to speak about yourself. After 15 minutes, you get bored talking about yourself and I was like I need a break, I am going,” Dhoni addressed the reporters as quoted by Hindustan Times back in the day.
Not paying much heed to Dhoni’s behaviour, a persistent Rajput still peppered him with questions. In the same press conference, Rajput had revealed getting to watch Dhoni losing his cool as a consequence.
Detailed questioning, however, impacted Rajput’s performance in the affirmative as everyone loved him as Dhoni. With M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story emerging as an outright critical and commercial success, Rajput had earned laurels for his performance from established actors such as Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao and Vicky Kaushal.
