Monalisa Patsani
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 8: The much-awaited biopic on marathon prodigy Budhia Singh, ‘Budhia Singh – Born To Run’ will hit cinemas August 5. The film produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Code Red Film Productions, stars Manoj Bajpai, Tillotama Shome and Master Mayur.
The movie had earlier been named ‘Duronto’ but it was changed right before announcement of its release to ‘Budhia Singh – Born to Run’.
Directed by Soumendra Padhi, the film received the national award this year as the best movie in children’s category. It is based on Budhia Singh, who as a child of four had set a Limca record by covering 65 kilometres in seven hours and two minutes in 2006.
Soumendra told Orissa POST: “Though we have a little more of editing to complete, we hope to finish the work in a few weeks as we still have two months in hand.”
But why was the name of the movie changed at the last minute? “It was a suggestion the marketing head gave. Since it is a biopic, it would be better to give Bhudia’s name just as most other biopics. The name ‘Duronto’ does not give a clear idea of the movie. Moreover Budhia Singh is more appropriate as he well known. This way the name of the movie will remain in the mind of most people at national and international levels. I believe it is a good decision as the name Budhia Singh will reach the audience easily.”
Though the name has been changed, the team is awaiting approval of the CBFC. “Since only the name has been changed and not the content, we don’t think there would be any problem in receiving an approval from the censor board,” he said. Although he had been a little worried initially about the change of name, as it could get people confused with the name, Soumendra has played along with the decision.
“People are now familiar with the name Duronto after the film received the national award. So we had this feeling that they might confuse the new name for another movie. But we are going to promote the movie with its new name through a big advertisement campaign. The trailer of the movie will be released in the first or last week of July along with posters and other marketing drives.”
Soumendra hopes his film will receive a good response from the audience. “Receiving the national award was the best thing but the most important thing is the response of the audience. We hope the experience will be good throughout and that the national award tag will help the movie.”
