Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra remembers Milkha Singh: Your footsteps continue to inspire generations

Mumbai, July 14 (IANS) As his directorial “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” clocked 13 years in Hindi cinema, acclaimed filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra remembered the late Indian track and field sprinter Milkha Singh.

Omprakash Mehra shared a string of images featuring him, Milkha Singh, actors Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor.

“13 years. Thank you, Milkha ji, for trusting us with your story. Your footsteps continue to inspire generations, and they always will. Forever running. Forever remembered,” he wrote as the caption.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film. Based on the life of Milkha Singh, an Indian athlete and Olympian who was a champion of the Commonwealth Games and two-time 400m champion of the Asian Games.

The film performed very well at the box office, eventually being declared a “super hit” domestically as well as a hit overseas. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is the sixth highest-grossing 2013 Bollywood film worldwide

The film was inspired by The Race of My Life, an autobiography co-written by Milkha Singh and his daughter, Sonia. He sold the film rights for one rupee and inserted a clause stating that a share of the profits would be given to the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust, which was founded in 2003 to assist poor and needy sportspeople.

Milkha Singh was admitted to the intensive care unit in May 2021 with pneumonia caused by Covid. His condition was, for a while, described as stable, but he died in June 2021.

Talking about the filmmaker, Omprakash Mehra is best known for writing and directing the drama Rang De Basanti, which was released in 2006, Aks and the drama Delhi-6.

His most recent work was Toofan, a sports drama film. An adaptation of the 2017 Bengali film Chaamp, it stars Farhan Akhtar, Mrunal Thakur, Paresh Rawal, Supriya Pathak, Hussain Dalal, Mohan Agashe, Darshan Kumar, and Vijay Raaz.

–IANS

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