Official: Vijay Sethupathi to star in Muttiah Muralidharan biopic

We had earlier reported about legendary Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan getting a biopic made in Tamil. Its official announcement has just been made by the makers. Vijay Sethupathi has been signed to play Muralitharan’s role in the film and it will be directed by MS Sripathi. Movie Train Motion Pictures is producing the film jointly with DAR Motion Pictures.

Muttiah Muralitharan is one of the greatest bowlers to have played the game of cricket. A Tamilian by birth, Murali was born and brought up in Sri Lanka. He made his cricketing debut in 1992 and played for Sri Lanka till 2011. Even after 9 years of his retirement, he still holds the world record for the most number of wickets in both test (800) and one-day international cricket (534).

Muralitharan is married to Chennai-based Madhimalar, daughter of the later doctor Ramamurthy who founded the famous Malar Hospitals. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Malayali actress Rajisha Vijayan has been approached to essay Madhimalar’s role in the biopic. Vijay Sethupathi meanwhile is expected to undergo a physical transformation of sorts to look like Murali.

Pre-production works for the film has already begun. Sam CS of ‘Vikram Vedha’ fame has been brought on board as the music director. Rest of the cast and crew are yet to be confirmed. The biopic has been planned to be made in Tamil and released in several other languages.