Srijit Had Called Me in Jakarta: Swapna Barman

RBN Web Desk: Asian Games gold medal winner Swapna Barman has revealed that director Srijit Mukherji had called her up while in Jakarta, wanting to make a biopic on the athlete. Swapna is the first Indian athlete to win an Asiad gold in the heptathlon event of the competition at Jakarta recently.

What made Swapna’s achievement more inspiring is that the 21-year old had to battle insurmountable odds to emerge at the top of the victory podium. Coming from an impoverished family of lowly paid daily wage labourers in Jalpaiguri, Swapna participated in the event with ill fitting shoes, and a splitting toothache. She has twelve toes on her feet and needs special shoes for training which her family could not afford. Swapna competed wearing regular shoes and suffered immense pain in the entire event spread over several days. Her life has enough cinematic ingredients to make a biopic.

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Speaking to the media, Swapna said, she was visiting a dentist when Srijit called her. She had earlier watched Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), a sports biographical film on legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh, and wondered whether her life will inspire a director to make a biopic. She was happy with the offer but Srijit has not called her again since her return to Kolkata. Swapna claimed, she has not seen any of Srijit’s films but is aware that he is a leading director in Bengal.

It may be recalled that Swapna’s coach Subhash Sarkar had refused the biopic offer, saying that the film could have a negative impact on the future performance of the athlete who still has a long way to go and will now train for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Image: Hindustan Times