Azhar Movie Review

Azhar (2016) is an upcoming Indian biographical sports film directed by Tony D'Souza. It is based on the life of former Indian international cricketer,

Mohammad Azharuddin. Azharuddin was accused of match-fixing but has a clean chit from A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which in November 2012 set aside a previous lifetime ban. The lower court's order justified the life ban imposed on Mohammed Azharuddin, by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) match-fixing scandal in 2000. The film is being produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Sneha Rajani under their banners Balaji Motion Pictures and MSM Motion Pictures. It is scheduled for release on 13 May 2016 and will star Emraan Hashmi playing Azharuddin alongside Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri, and Huma Qureshi. The role of Naureen was first offered to Pakistani actress Urwa Hocane by Ekta Kapoor, but she refused, stating she didn't want to do bold scenes.

Emraan Hashmi as Mohammad Azharuddin

Prachi Desai as Naureen, the first wife of Azharuddin

Nargis Fakhri as Sangeeta Bijlani, the second wife of Azharuddin

Huma Qureshi as Jwala Gutta

Gautam Gulati as Ravi Shastri

Manjot Singh as Navjot Singh

Kunaal Roy Kapur as a lawyer

Ashish Pathode as Ajay Jadeja

Apurva Gondalia as Anil Kumble

Prajay Bhagat as Javagal Srinath

Akshay Kumar Cameo

Daggubati Suresh Babu

Aslam Sultan as Asad

As early as June 2013, producer Ekta Kapoor had spoken of her plans and signed a contract with cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin to make this biopic. At that time actors Saif Ali Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh were on her wish list.Azharuddin was quizzical over the film until after he had read a copy of the script presented to him by director D’Souza.

Filming started in May 2015 with plans for a May 2016 release.Various scenes for the film have been shot at Lords, the Oval, Cantebury, Derby and Edgbaston cricket grounds and other places in the United Kingdom including Harleyford Manor, Virginia Water, Mayfield Lavender Farm, and Windsor.

The first schedule of the film was completed in October 2015 in London and the second schedule also completed in Hyderabad.