Muttiah Muralitharan is a legend in cricket stadiums across the world with 16 world records, most of which are unlikely to be broken in the near future. The spin wizard was rated the greatest Test Match bowler by Wisden’s Cricketers Almanack in 2002. In 2017, he was the first Sri Lankan cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
800 is an upcoming biopic on the legendary spinner. The film written and directed by M.S. Sripathy with Slumdog Millionaire’s Madhur Mittal playing the spin wizard, will release in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. The film is aptly titled 800, after the record number of wickets Murali took in Test cricket.
Murali, as he is popularly known, turns 51 on April 17. As a special birthday gift, the makers of his biopic unveiled a poster on the occasion. We can see Madhur Mittal’s remarkable transformation to play the character. With short hair and a French beard, Madhur looks perfectly like Murali here. We can see the reflection of wickets with bails out on his face. They also have unveiled a motion poster today.
The sports drama journeys with Murali amidst a Civil War to becoming one of the most successful bowlers ever, the highest wicket-taker who averaged six wickets per Test match.
Interestingly, Murali has his roots in Tamil Nadu. His grandparents were Indians taken to Sri Lanka by Britishers to work in tea plantations there.
Speaking about his inspirational muse, Sripathy says, “800 is not just a story around Murali’s cricket career, but a story of human courage. The film is an inspiring story of a common man standing against all odds who became a legend through his grit and determination. 800 captures the many faces of the legend that is Muttiah Muralidaran, a cricketing icon from a war-torn Sri Lanka, who became the greatest wicket-taker of all time. For those who know nothing of cricket, it is a thrilling and poignant underdog tale. For those who have followed Murali’s turbulent career, it will show you the man behind the mythology.”
Admirably, despite all the controversies, Murali topped ICC’s player rankings for Test bowlers for a record 1,711 days across 214 Test matches. He overtook West Indian bowler Courtney Walsh in 2004, then Australian spinner Shane Warne in 2007, to become the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Two years later, in 2009, at home in Colombo, he scalped Gautam Gambhir to streak ahead of Wasim Akram’s 502 wicket haul to set a new ODI record.
Madhur Mittal, who was internationally acclaimed for his performance as Salim Malik in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, is delighted to have landed this opportunity. “It’s an honour to bring the story of a legend like Muralitharan on screen. We all know him as a cricketer, but there’s a lot in the film about him as a person who has beaten the odds to come up triumphant in life which will inspire generations of youngsters down the decades.” he signs off.
The film produced by Movie Train Motion Pictures and Vivek Rangachari is slated to release this year.
