Bengal Textbook Uses Farhan Akhtar's Picture For Milkha Singh's; Actor Asks Minister of School Education to Replace It Immediately
We have all heard about how cinema mirrors reality, but this is definitely taking things a bit too far.
The biggest honour for an actor working in a biopic to get is when people tell him or her that they can't differentiate between him and the real-life person he is playing. But what if the actor was so good or convincing in the role that people forget that part that he or she is not really the person they are playing? Well, something of that sort happened with Farhan Akhtar. The actor in him is most popularly known for playing former Olympian Milkha Singh in his biopic Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. The movie was the biggest hit of Farhan's career as a lead actor and he got widespread acclaim for the same.
While he definitely didn't look really like the real Flying Sikh (for one, the sports legend didn't have six packs then), it was enough for a school textbook in West Bengal to erroneously print Farhan's picture from the movie in place of the real Milkha. Yes, that's what happened when one Twitter user pointed out the error (while also tagging a couple of political commentators in his tweet, just to create outrage).
Farhan, immediately, took over the error and asked the Minister of School Education, West Bengal to recall and replace the books immediately.
Derek O'Brien, Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal, replied to him saying that it will be done as soon as possible.
We have all heard about how cinema mirrors reality, but this is definitely taking things a bit too far.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2018 03:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).