Sachin Tendulkar: India cricket legend to act in biopic

Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar is set to play himself in a film being made on his life.A Mumbai-based production house told the BBC that the biopic will be directed by award-winning British director James Erskine.”It will be mostly about his personal life since his cricketing career is well known,” a company spokesman said.Tendulkar retired from all forms of cricket in 2013 with an unparalleled record of 100 international centuries.He has also been awarded the Bharat Ratna (The Jewel of India) – the country’s highest civilian honour – and was nominated to the upper house of India’s parliament.The as yet-unnamed film on Tendulkar’s life is expected to be “between 90 minutes and two hours” and “we are aiming to release it by the end of this year or early next year”, Krishna Ananthan of the production company 200NotOut told the BBC.”Shooting for the film has been going on for the past year and we aim to continue filming through the year,” he added.The film is aimed at Tendulkar’s fans all over the world and the makers of the film say they expect it will be watched globally by “people who like him and follow him”.Asked to comment on the cricketer’s acting skills, Mr Ananthan said: “He is not acting, he’s just playing himself.”Tendulkar played in 664 international matches, scored 34,357 runs and made 100 centuries.In 2008, he became the highest run-scorer in Test cricket, passing West Indian Brian Lara’s then-record of 11,953 runs.