Shahid Kapoor's biopic on boxing champion Dingko Singh shelved, confirms director Raja Krishna Menon

Director Raja Krishna Menon, known for his films  Chef  and  Airlift , has confirmed that his upcoming directorial, a biopic on former boxing champion and Asian Games gold medalist Dingko Singh, has been put on the hold for the time being. The film was supposed to be bankrolled and headlined by Shahid Kapoor.

Speaking about his decision to shelf the project, Menon tells Bombay Times , “Shahid and I have often spoken about the film over the last few months. He wants to do it and is really keen to make it well. The thing is, after we procured the rights, sealed the various deals and got down to the writing-table, he got busy and so did I. I had another commitment, too. We’ve not arrived at a final draft of the script even now. And with his recent run at the box office, things have changed."

He goes onto say that Shahid is taking time off to decide on his next project, after the commercial success of Kabir Singh . They will resume the project once the actor is ready to hop aboard, Menon adds.

Back in August 2018, Shahid that announced the biopic, saying that the characters that most biopics portray are unknown legends who people should know about. Talking about the Phogat sisters in the smashing box office hit  Dangal , Kapoor mentioned that their tale of struggle and success would go mostly unnoticed had it not been for the film. “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,” he had said to Times of India.

(Read: Dingko Singh biopic stars Shahid Kapoor, but aren’t stories from Manipur best told by its own people?)