John Abraham to play a boxer in boxing legend Hawa Singh’s biopic

Actor John Abraham will next be seen as a boxer in a biopic on the boxing legend Hawa Singh who mentored Vijender Singh. Captain Hawa Singh was an Indian Heavyweight boxer, who dominated Indian and Asian amateur boxing for a decade in his weight class. He joined the army in 1956 at 19, and four years later, bested reigning champion Mohabbat Singh to win the Western Command Boxing Championship. He won the National Championships in the heavyweight category a record 11 consecutive times — from 1961 to 1972.

He is best remembered today for being the founder of the Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC), which came to the limelight in 2008 in India for producing 4 out of 5 boxers of the Indian boxing contingent to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, including the Olympic medallist Vijender Kumar. He was awarded the Dronacharya Award in 1999. He died suddenly in Bhiwani on August 14, 2000 – 15 days before he was to have received the Dronacharya Award.

So the makers of the movie plan to shoot in Delhi, Vaishnodevi, Haryana, including his village Umarvas, and Thailand. They will also use actual boxers, will fly them down from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries. Sam Fernandez, former COO of Vidhu Vinod Chopra who enjoyed a stint with 20th Century Fox, has bought the rights to Hawa Singh’s story. He will produce the film with his partner, John and a studio.

Sam confirmed the news about the biopic on Captain Hawa Singh. John says, “We are both six-feet-one and weigh 94 kgs. His son, Sanjay Singh, daughter-in-law and two grandkids, came to see me. I’ve not signed it yet but the family, Sam and I are all very excited about this project.”

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Prajakta Ajgaonkar

Passionate about writing, and a Bollywood lover, she is all that is sweet and endearing! She desires to put her best foot forward in everything that she does and loves to help anyone who’s in need.