John Abraham to play Mohun Bagan captain in new film on historic 1911 football match
John Abraham has been following the same route as his Desi Boyz co-star Akshay Kumar. The actor has been picking up patriotic roles since quite some and has now announced his latest project based on an iconic 1911 football match that took place in the pre-independence era. After featuring in Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, Satyameva Jayate, the actor is already working in another film titled Batla House and features as a DCP on the film’s poster. He has now roped in Nikkhil Advani of Kal Ho Na Ho fame to direct the film. Interestingly, Advani is also directing Batla House.
Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani says he is honoured that actor-producer John Abraham chose him to helm 1911, which will tell the story of an iconic event in India’s sports history. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Advani has confirmed that John will play captain Shibdas Bhaduri and will rope some popular actors who can play football.
“Totally honoured that John Abraham entrusted me to tell the story of 1911’. Truly an inspiring story of an iconic event in our country’s history. Wait for it,” Advani tweeted on Monday. In response to Advani, John wrote: “The honour is all mine.”John has joined hands with Advani’s Emmay Entertainment and Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series for the project.
1911 has been a dream project of sorts for John, who is a football fanatic himself. The movie, John had earlier told IANS, is a story of late Indian footballer Sibdas Bhaduri, who captained Mohun Bagan in the historic 1911 IFA Shield final when they defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment to become the maiden Asian team to emerge victorious in the competition.
John, a co-owner of Indian Super League (ISL) Guwahati franchise North East United FC, in a 2014 interview to IANS, had not ruled out roping in some real football players for the project.
