National Award-winning Marathi filmmaker Nagraj Manjule's debut Hindi film has been seen as an exciting project ever since it was announced last year. Not only because the film stars Amitabh Bachchan in lead but also because the movie tells a real-life story, Jhund has been a promising film to look out for. However, the movie hit a roadblock when the sets erected at Pune's Savitribai Phule Pune University were taken down after certain student organisations from the city opposed the university's decision to allow them to shoot for the film on the university’s playground. Later, the filmmaker himself announced that the shooting has been deferred indefinitely.
Since then there was no proper update on the status of the movie which led to speculate that the movie has been put on the backburner. It went viral recently when Mumbai Mirror reported that Amitabh Bachchan has backed out of the film as the shooting was kept getting delayed without any clarity. They even claimed that Big B has returned the signing amount to the makers.
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However, let us assure you that Jhund has neither been shelved nor Bachchan has opted out of it. A source close to the project informed us that the biopic movie based on football coach Vijay Barse, the man behind the Slum Soccer campaign, is definitely happening. "There was a copyright-infringement issue. Meenu Aroraa had bought the rights to Vijay's story and she had to make the film within a span of two years. But that didn't happen and the rights expired. That was the issue, but now it has been solved as Meenu Ji has renewed the rights and is reworking everything out," a source told us.
"They have now tied up with Bhushan Kumar to make this film. The things with T-Series are on finalizing stage and an announcement on the same will happen soon." The makers are currently working on the dates of Bachchan as he also has a film with Sujoy Ghosh scheduled to roll in next few months. If everything falls into place, Jhund is likely to take off in a month's time.
It was being reported that Sandeep Singh has come on board as a financier for the film. However, when we asked the source clarified that he has nothing to do with this film. "And neither there was anybody else pitching the story anywhere," the source added talking about a DNA story which claimed that a lady named Savita also had the rights to Vijay's story and was pitching the same idea to other production houses.
Talking about the film, Jhund is based on Vijay Barse, a retired school teacher from Pune who set-up the Slum Soccer programme that brought children from the slums on the field for a better life. Amitabh Bachchan will be seen playing football with real-life members of Barse's Slum Soccer team in the movie. Nagraj Manjule had recently said, "All I can say at the moment is that nothing in the film will be haphazard or casual. We will treat the theme and the characters with the respect they deserve."
