Ajay Devgn has done a biopic before in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, for which he won his second National award for the Best Actor (the first one was for Zakhm). He might have played fictionalised versions of Dawood Ibrahim and Haji Mastan in Company and Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai respectively, but they weren't true biopics. Now he is all set to do a sports biopic, where he is playing the legendary football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim. We have to ask this - have Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar inspired him to do so?

As you are aware, the highest grossing movie in Bollywood is a sports biopic, which is Aamir Khan's Dangal. In the movie, he played former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. Then there is Gold where Akshay Kumar plays a gentleman who wants to make India be at the top of hockey game after the country gained independence. Looking at the buzz the movie is creating pre-release, it can be safely predicted that Gold will work at the box office. So can't blame Ajay Devgn for choosing this genre.

Talking about the man on whom the movie is made, Syed Abdul Rahim was appointed as the football team’s coach /manager of from 1950-1963. He raised a team that was responsible for winning the gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games. The team had also managed to get a semi-final berth in the 1956 Olympics under his tutelage.

Playing Syed Abdul Rahim will give Ajay an opportunity to go Chak De India and Gold with the role. He has shared his excitement on working on this yet-untitled project, as he tweeted, "Elated and proud to announce a story never told as @ZeeStudios_ #BoneyKapoor & @freshlimefilms come together for a biopic on India’s legendary #Football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim, starring @ajaydevgn, directed by @CinemaPuraDesi, screenplay by @SaiwynQ, and dialogues by @writish".

The movie will be produced by Boney Kapoor, Zee Studios and Fres Lime Films and will be directed by Amit Sharma.

Ajay Devgn, interestingly, is also a part of another intriguing movie, where he will be playing the Mauryan Empire scholar and strategist, Chanakya. The movie will be directed by Neeraj Pandey.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 13, 2018 06:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).