India’s former world No 1 archer Deepika Kumari already has a Netflix documentary called Ladies First made on her life, which has garnered awards and a positive response. But the 23-year-old decided to put her big-screen debut on hold, backing out of a Hindi film to focus on her training.
According to a report by The Indian Express, Deepika was to play a lead role in a film called Bisahi, which is based on witch-hunting. However, she withdrew from the film, which is to be produced by Suresh Seth Bhagat and directed by Manish Sinha, before she could start shooting.
“It was a good subject, but I soon realised that if I did the film, it would not be possible for me to do my best in training and competitions,” Deepika told the daily.
The archer said that she didn’t know how the international calendar looked like when she signed the film, but with the current competition schedule, she thought it would be too hectic for her. Apart from the all-important Asian Games, there is an archery World Cup this year as well.
“Though the producers had said that I needed to work on the film for only 10-11 days, it would not clash with my competitions, and I had to shoot only on weekends, I would not have got any rest as the weekdays would have been consumed totally by my training,” she added.
The 23-year-old, who has been part of India’s squad at the London 2010 and Rio 2016 Olympics, also said that she will think about doing a film only after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.