Conflicting reports are emerging on National Award winner and Sairat director Nagraj Manjule’s proposed Bollywood debut Jhund. Is Amitabh Bachchan in the sports biopic on retired football coach Vijay Barse or not? The Bollywood media is divided on this. One section believes that Jhund which was on the backburner for over a year will go on the floor soon with a new budget and Mr. Bachchan on board. While another reports that the actor has opted out of Manjule’s film because Jhund keeps getting delayed and he has no more dates to give.

Apparently Mr. Bachchan was keen on playing the lead role of the retired football coach who founded a NGO called Slum Soccers to teach underprivileged children from slums how to play football. The actor is also believed to have taken a signing amount from Manjule to do Jhund. That was sometime last year. But as one thing or another kept the biopic from going on the floor, Mr. Bachchan is reported to have returned the amount and concentrated on other films at hand like Dharma Productions’ Brahmastra.

According to sources in the media, there is a copyright issue with Jhund as well that led to the delay and is probably the reason why Mr. Bachchan backed out. Besides Manjule, two women were reportedly pitching the same film to production houses and fighting over the rights which are believed to be with the Sairat filmmaker. Manjule is said to have the rights to Jhund only for two years after which it becomes null and void. But his delay in starting the film was over the budget which was found to be astronomical. That’s when Sandeep Singh stepped in as financier and got Bhushan Kumar of T-Series on board to make Jhund under his banner at half the proposed budget.

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If media sources are to be believed, modalities are being worked out and Jhund will roll later this year. Of the two women who were fighting to make the sports biopic, there is no further news. Also, there is no clarity on whether Mr. Bachchan will do the film or not. The actor has neither confirmed the conflicting rumours nor denied them. Watch this space for further developments.