Watch : This former Pakistani Cricketer open up on his chances in Bollywood!
Cricket and Bollywood has always had a special connection. From players appearing with actors in advertisements, to investment by the actors on Cricket franchises, both go hand by hand. In the past we have also seen many marriages between Indian or foreign Cricketers and Bollywood actors.
KL Rahul and Athiya Shetty were the latest Cricket-Bollywood marriage that we witnessed. Players like Virat Kohli, Sir Vivian Richards, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh among others are married to Bollywood actresses. And for all the fans who wants to see a pairing of their favorite cricketer and actor, this Trend will never tend to slow down.
But in this particular feature, we have the Rawalpindi express – former Pakistan quickie Shoaib Akhtar, who was also the nightmare of some batters during his playing days, open up about his chances of landing a role in any Bollywood movie.
How would one fit Shoiab Akhtar into a movie? Into a hero? Or the Villian? It will be fair to choose the latter role due to his enigmatic character on the field and sending the balls like bullets from his “Dhai Kilo ka haath”. Recently he sat down for an interview with the Express Tribune and as revealed by ANI, in 2005 Mahesh Bhatt had offered Shoaib Akhter a role in his movie named “Gangster”.
https://twitter.com/pk_economy/status/1627670793256677377
The same report also indicated that Akhtar was in line to play the lead role in the movie and another source had to say that Mahesh Bhatt himself flew to Pakistan to read the script to the Premium fast bowler. However, Akhtar declined the offer and said that – . “I was offered a lead role in Bollywood movie Gangster.
“I guess it all began in 2005 when Meera, the well-known Pakistani actress, told me that Mahesh Bhatt, an acclaimed director of Hindi films, wanted to meet me. I was attending a cricket camp in Karachi and he flew in with a film script. Mahesh wanted me to play a role in his film Gangster and I was tempted. It was a great script and I have always enjoyed movies, but I didn’t accept the role due to some reasons.”
He later revealed more about his decision to not appear in the Bollywood scene and said that the Pakistani Cricket Board would have sidelined him or Ban him from the National side. Akhtar said, “The PCB was after me and was threatening to ban me. If you do this, we will do this, we will do that.”
The second main reason was Akhtar did not want to pursue to different careers at once that too at a time in 2005 when he was in his Peak. “Secondly, everyone around me was against my doing a film. If you want to play cricket, then don’t do this, it’s not possible to handle two professionas, they advised me. I didn’t want people to think that i was a non-serious cricketer, movie bhe kar raha hai, like Mohsin Khan.”
