Did You Know Shane Warne Was To Star In A Bollywood Film?

Photo courtesy: IPL/Twitter

New Delhi: Had it not been for COVID-19, we would have had a Bollywood film with Shane Warne, the Australian cricketer, whose death on Friday left the world in shock and grief.

In 2015, Shane had revealed that he had a Bollywood offer waiting for him. In another interview, Shane said that he wanted either Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio to portray his role in his planned ‘Hollywood-ised’ biopic, which was being made for the Indian audience, Hindustan Times reported.

Shane had retired from cricket in 2015. At that time, there were rumours that he was to feature in a Bollywood film. Shane was very popular in India and was also close to many Bollywood stars. Shane eventually confirmed the news. “There is an offer. There is someone who has something for me,” Shane told PTI while attending a Tourism Victoria event later that year.

A few years later, Shane revealed that an Indian production company was in talks to produce his biopic. However, it was later put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shane had told news.com.au at that time, “I think hopefully by the end of the year or early next year we’ll pick it up again and see what’s going on.” He added that he wanted Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt to portray in the film.

“A guy has written a script about it, this company want to shoot it, so it’s basically a Hollywood movie shot for India. And they’re basing it on my story of how we put together the Royals in 2008 and they’ve ‘Hollywood-ised’ it. It’s all sorts of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll stuff,” he had been quoted as saying.

On Friday, Bollywood mourned Shane’s death. Shilpa Shetty, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, Shibani Dandekar, Varun Dhawan and others paid tribute to the Australian spinner on social media.