MUMBAI:

In what seems like a tongue-in-cheek homage to the spirit of sportsmanship, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has been cast as the coach of a girls’ hockey team in a film by Ab Tak Chhappan fame director Shimit Amin.

Amin is seriously enthused about the film. “It’s a dying art form. While we continue to go into ecstasy over cricket we hardly seem to realise that hockey is a true-blue Indian game and we need to give it the respect it deserves,” he said.

The director has cast girls as hockey players in the team. “The girls have to be sporty and swift hockey players. It isn’t easy. The game is no longer that popular. It requires physically fit players. And it looks like a struggle ahead to get girl players in place before we go into production.”