Vijay Sethupathi to play Muttiah Muralitharan in biopic

Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi will essay Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan in a biopic written and directed by MS Sripathy, The Hindu reported.

The film is expected to be titled 800 — after number of wickets the former cricketer has in Tests, the most in history by any bowler.

“I am happy to be associated with the Muttiah Muralitharan biopic. He is an iconic sportsman of Tamil origin and someone who has made his mark across the world,” Vijay said.

“Portraying Murali is a challenge I’m looking forward to. I’m delighted that Murali himself will be closely involved with the project and guiding me on the cricketing aspects. I am thankful to Murali and the producers for the faith bestowed on me,” added the actor.

Opening up on the project, Muralitharan said, “We are looking at a late 2020 release. I am honoured that an accomplished actor such as Vijay Sethupathi will be playing me in the film. I have been actively collaborating with the creative team for the past several months and I will continue to support this project.”

The film will be made in Tamil and released in several languages across the world. Sethupathi has a number of films in hand currently, such as Sanga Tamizhan, Laabam and Kadaisi Vivaysayi. His last Tamil film Sindhubaadh was a box-office flop, and his Malayalam debut Marconi Mathai was a disappointment too.

Meanwhile, while the news did the rounds on Twitter, a comment from one user stating that Yogi Babu as Russel Arnold in the movie would be a good fit, the former cricketer himself replied to the post, saying, “Russel Arnold as Russel Arnold. Why not???”