Mumbai: Actor Irrfan Khan has shot down rumours of playing the titular role in director Omung Kumar’s upcoming film “Sarabjit”, a biopic on the slain Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh.
The “Piku” star, who is in Budapest shooting for his next Hollywood project “Inferno” alongside Tom Hanks, said he has not been approached for the film.
“I haven’t been approached to play Sarabjit at all. This news is definitely not true,” Irrfan, 48, said in a statement.
Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been roped in to play Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur, who fought for her brother’s release from the Lahore jail.
Sarabjit, 49, was convicted of alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Pakistan’s Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990 and spent about 22 years in prisons.
A court sentenced him to death.
Sarabjit sustained severe injuries when six prisoners attacked him in a Pakistani jail in 2013. He succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.
Dalbir fought for her brother’s release from the Lahore jail but her quest ended tragically when he died in 2013 following a brutal attack by fellow prisoners.
The film will begin shooting in Punjab this October and is expected to hit theatres in May 2016.
PTI
