Lara Dutta bowled over by Mohammad Azharuddin

Actor calls former Indian cricketer ‘phenomenal’

MUMBAI: As one of the stars of Mohammad Azharuddin’s upcoming biography Azhar, actor Lara Dutta has called the legendary Indian cricketer a phenomenal person. In the film, the Bollywood beauty plays a lawyer hell bent on proving the match-fixing allegations levelled against Azharuddin, who is played by Emraan Hashmi.

“He [Azharuddin] has lent tremendous support to the film and obviously, remained very involved,” said Lara, at an event that saw her present scholarships to 200 female students. “He is an incredible person. After working with him over this year, I have gotten to know him and he is quite a phenomenal person,” she added.

As the trailer of the film suggests, Azharuddin remains one of the most successful and controversial captains in Indian cricket, owing to his accomplishments on the field, personal relationships and match-fixing scandals. When asked if she anticipates any problems for Azhar from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — the national governing body for the game — Lara replied in the negative. “The film-makers have done good research on it,” she said. “They have made the film with a lot of care and thought. It will have its own destiny and we will see what the destiny is when the film releases.”



The Singh Is Bliing star went on to share how she feels now that Azhar’s release date is getting closer. “The film is releasing and it feels good. Peoples’ reactions to the trailer have been very good,” stated Lara. “I am excited, having worked on this film very hard. It’s a slightly bigger responsibility as well because it is based on real-life incidences. I hope people go and watch it and like it.”

Directed by Tony D’Souza, Azhar is slated to release next month, on May 13. It also stars actors Prachi Desai and Nargis Fakhri as Azharuddin’s first and second wives, respectively. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2016.

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