‘Dangal’ is releasing this Friday to calm cinephiles who have been waiting for it with bated breaths. The sports drama chronicles wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat’s life and how he stood up against society to make his daughters Geeta and Babita world class wrestlers.
Celebrities who have watched the movie have hailed it.
But what many are forgetting that ‘Dangal’ also has two newcomers Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sheikh, who have put equal effort to perfect their roles in the movie.
Fatima and Sanya will be playing Geeta and Babita respectively in the movie. The young actresses recently revealed how they prepared for the role, confirming their hard work was nowhere less than Aamir’s.
The young actresses auditioned for the roles for more than a month and had even given up hope of being cast in it. On being brought on board, Fatima and Sanya did all they could to perfect the role. They watched videos of the real life wrestler Geeta and Babita to get into the skin of the character.
Fatima and Sanya trained hard under a strict coach, for whom all their injuries were normal. They hid their injuries from the crew of the movie thinking they would be ousted from the project. Both Fatima and Sanya made secret trips to physiotherapist to get well soon and resume shooting. Also, like their on screen father Aamir, Sanya and Fatima invested close to two years in this highly-talked about project.
On the chat show ‘Koffee with Karan’, Fatima and Sanya also admitted to not having a personal life since they were engrossed in the movie.
With the kind of dedication, the two newcomers have put in the movie; it would be really unfair to think of ‘Dangal’ as another of Aamir’s movie. Another reason why this could be wrong is because ‘Dangal’ is essentially a feminist movie. It is about two girls who defied all norms and rose to popularity. At a time when wrestling was considered a ‘manly’ sport, Geeta and Babita challenged this custom.
In a nutshell, ‘Dangal’ is a must watch not only for Aamir but also because of the girls Fatima, Sanya and the thought process it represents- ‘Chhoriyan choron se kam hai ke?’
