Dhoni decides to play it safe! The makers of MSD biopic strike out the names of Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman who were entangled in the 2008 selection quarrel with the skipper, in a last-minute final edit decision
There's just a few days left for the much-awited biopic on cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni to hit the theatres, when the makers have decided to omit the names of three cricketing stalwarts from an important scene in the film. Dhoni: The Untold Story's trailer was launched on August 11, and since then there has been considerable buzz online regarding that one scene where Sushant Singh Rajput, who's essaying MS Dhoni is being criticised and pulled up by the selectors for unceremoniously dropping his three seniors.
In the scene, a selector says “Yeh teenon ko nikaalke rukne wala nahin hai,” of Dhoni, to which he retorts over a video call saying, “We’re all servants, and we’re all doing national duty.” However, sources told a tabloid that the originally, line mentions the names of three cricketers -- Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. But now, in a last-minute decision, the makers have exercised self-censored to avoid creating any necessary controversy by editing that scene which mentions the names of these great players.
Director Neeraj Pandey confirmed this last-minute development to a tabloid saying, “The sequence from the promo is very much there in the movie. All we have done is knock off names of the three cricketers who were mentioned. This is as per the original plan, discussed with Dhoni a year and half ago, where we had decided to shoot the scene with the names, yes, but take a call on this only in the final edit.” Pandey says the reason behind this decision is to prevent “unnecessarily ruffling feathers, when that is not the intention or tone of the movie.”
When the director was asked to name the cricketers who were originally mentioned in the scene, Pandey chuckled asking, “Are you seriously asking me that question? Obviously I can’t. That would be highly disrespectful of me to do.” This make us wonder what does Dhoni who has watched the first cut of his biopic last month think of this move... “Well, he just sat in silence for 10 minutes, didn’t speak a word. It was quite an awkward feeling for him, watching his own self, being played by an actor, on the big screen,” Pandey replied.
*What happened in 2008?
During the 2008 Commonwealth Bank Series, which was held in Australia, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were dropped from the one day Indian team although they were all set to play the crucial fourth test under Anil Kumble’s leadership. Back then, Ganguly's omission became a big issue. The BCCI asked secretary Niranjan Shah to justify the decision. “The emphasis was on fielding abilities and the team management wanted a young fielding side for the series,” Shah told the media.
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