MS Dhoni with Sushant Singh Rajput
Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput died of suicide on Sunday at his Bandra apartment. He was just 34. His tragic loss sent shockwaves across the nation leaving the whole of cricket fraternity "shocked and saddened". From Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli to Rohit Sharma, all took to Twitter to mourn the death of the actor. The news also left former Indian captain MS Dhoni "morose".
In his short career, Sushant had made a special place in the heart of Indian fans with his portrayal of the titular role in 'MS Dhoni: The Untold Story', for which he had worked for 13 months under the guidance of former wicketkeeper Kiran More just to pick Dhoni's mannerisms including the famous helicopter shot.
Speaking to ABP Ananda on Sunday, Dhoni's manager Arun Pandey revealed that the 38-year-old cricketer was impressed with Sushant's justification of his potrayal in the biopic and admired his immense dedication towards the role.
“We can’t even believe what has happened. I am not in a position to express my grief. Mahi is also very morose. Such a tragic incident,” Arun said.
“Sushant used to practice under the watchful eyes of former cricketer Kiran More who taught him how to keep wickets, which was very essential to play the role of Mahi. I still remember that Sushant had a bad side strain during practice and even there was a crack in his backbone. But he was confident, worked hard in rehabilitation and recovered within a week. Even Mahi was impressed to see his dedication to work.”
Arun further added that Dhoni was confident that Sushant was the perfect person for the role in the biopic.
“Sushant worked whole night to assimilate the script. He was desperate to play the role with perfection. He used to say that since he got the opportunity to portray Mahi on screen, he will give his best. It was not easy to play the role of Mahi on screen. But Sushant made it look easy. Mahi and we all knew that he was the best person to play the character,” said Arun.
