Actor Anushka Sharma, who was last seen on the silver screen in 2018, on Thursday shared a snippet of her new project -- a biopic on Jhulan Goswami, the former captain of the Indian women’s cricket team.
Titled Chakda Express, the movies stars Sharma in the trailblazing cricketer’s role. Clean State Filmz, a production company owned by Sharma and her brother, has produced the movie. Filming for the project will begin soon.
Hailing from West Bengal’s Chakdaha town, Goswami, 39, has a long list of accomplishments to her credit. She is ranked among the greatest women bowlers in the world.
Goswami has been honoured with the Padma Shri, Arjuna Award and the ICC Women’s Cricketer award.
Sharma, while announcing the biopic on Instagram, said that when Goswami decided to become a cricketer, it was difficult for women to even think of playing the sport. Goswami made her international cricket debut in 2002.
“From support systems, to facilities, to having a stable income from playing the game, to even having a future in cricket – very little propelled women of India to take up cricket as a profession. Jhulan had a fighting and extremely uncertain cricketing career and she [Goswami] stayed motivated to make her country proud,” Sharma wrote.
The actor added that Goswami shattered the stereotype that women could not chose cricket as a career. “Her life is a living testimony that passion and perseverance triumphs over any or all adversities and Chakda Xpress is the most definitive look into the not so rosy world of women’s cricket back then.”
Sharma said it was an honour for her to bring Goswami’s story to the Indian audience. “As a cricketing nation, we have to give our women cricketers their due,” she added. “Jhulan’s story is truly an underdog story in the history of cricket in India and the film is our celebration of her spirit.”
Sharma was last seen in the movie Zero alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif. She is married to cricketer Virat Kohli. The couple have a daughter, 11-month-old Vamika.
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