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Bhubaneswar, June 18: Is Mayur also ‘born to run’ just as the marathon prodigy he has portrayed? Soumendra Padhi, the director of “Budhia Singh — Born to Run”, certainly believes the child actor and lead in his biopic fits the bill. And it is one of the key reasons he picked this boy from a Pune slum to play Budhia Awooga Singh from among 1,200 children auditioned.
Soumendra picked Mayur after auditions in states such as Orissa and Chhattisgarh, and in Pune and Mumbai (particularly Dharavi). The boy lived in a chawl in Pune with his mother in conditions similar to those of Budhia. He had lost his father, just as Budhia and, like the latter, was quite reserved and close to his mother.
More important, Mayur was more than eager to absorb the traits and mannerisms of Budhia. Soumendra made the boy stay in the chawl of Budhia to let him get into the skin of the character.
“We needed him to look the same throughout the film and asked him to keep away from chocolate. We thought he would cheat but he was himself keen to look like Budhia. He wanted to be Budhia more than anyone else,” Soumendra says. “Both of them don’t talk much. They have a piercing gaze and a miraculous effect on people. You will be struck by the adulation they command if you meet them.”
The director also found filming for the movie an engaging exercise. “About 25,000 people came to see the boy who was playing Budhia. People hugged him and got nostalgic. They showed him around Budhia’s house and told him things such as how Budhia looked, or had really thin legs and that how he never got tired of running.”
Mayur says, “Auditioning for the role of Budhia Singh was quite interesting and fun. I also learned a lot working with Manoj Bajpayee. The role involved a great deal of running. And since I love running, it was fun.”
Soumendra and his research team had interacted with Budhia’s neighbours, relatives, doctors and widow of Budhia’s coach Biranchi Das to gather facts. “The film portrays Budhia through the age of four to six but reality and his story are poles apart. Budhia’s neighbours themselves had different versions and that complicated things,” the film-maker said.
The film’s unit also filmed with 400 CRPF officers in Pune. “Officer BS Gill was a crucial part of grooming Budhia and got him to train with the CRPF. We recreated those moments with real officers. Mayur ran just like Budhia, doing 10-12 rounds of a big ground, leaving the officers behind,” Soumendra said.
The film produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Codered Film Productions is set for release August 5, 2016.