Director Raja Krishna Menon, who gave us some beautiful films like Airlift and Chef, is all set with his next – a story based on real events, yet again! This film is about a boxer, Ngangom Dingko Singh aka Dingko Singh.
And guess who will be playing the role of this boxer?
Well, it’s none other than our R Rajkumar actor Shahid Kapoor. Yes! Shahid will be seen playing the role of Dingko Singh in this Raja Krishna Menon film.
For all those who don’t know, Ngangom Dingko Singh, who hails from Manipur, was the first and only Asian gold medal winner boxer from India in the Bantamweight category. Being a former Indian Navy officer, he was also awarded the highest civilian honor, Padma Shri, in the year 2013. He is also a cancer survivor but he has struggled to fight the ailment not just physically but also financially.
According to a leading daily, Shahid Kapoor spoke about how he was impressed with the story of Dingko Singh whom he considers one of the forgotten heroes of the country and how he struggled to fight cancer. Shahid also thinks that Singh has one of the most intriguing stories to tell, from a boxer to someone who almost turned Naxalite to a cancer survivor.
Talking about this being one of his most ambitious project, Shahid says,
” The thing that I loved about this story is that he is one of those superstars who we don’t know much about. If a film like Dangal (2016) wasn’t made, we wouldn’t know as much about the Phogat sisters. Dingko is a cancer survivor, and he went through 13 rounds of chemotherapy. He has even gone on to say that his biggest win was surviving cancer and not the gold medal he won at the age of 19 at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. In 2017, Gautam Gambhir became aware of his situation and sent money for his treatment. Soon, people found out who he was, and 13 doctors came forward to help him. He is a sports star who survived cancer. At some point in his past, he had almost become a Naxalite. His life story is unbelievably crazy; it is very human and extremely inspiring. Such amazing stories of heroes need to be told.”
The actor who is currently busy with the promotions of Shree Narayan Singh’s Batti Gul Meter Chalu opposite Shraddha Kapoor is also busy with the shoot of Arjun Reddy. He has already started the prep for Raja Krishna Menon’s film side by side and is expected to kick off the biopic by the end of this year.
