Daijiworld Media Network - Entertainment

Mumbai, May 21: Actor Emraan Hashmi's first look as former Indian cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin. Emraan who considers himself an average gully cricketer said that perfecting Azhar's style of cricket was a challenge for him.

The actor said, "There are many challenges like cricketing style, which is very unconventional, I am an average gully cricketer. But when Azhar bhai came and taught me, I realised I had lot to learn in cricket. Hopefully I have got it better over the last three months. We play around 50 overs every day whacking the ball. We have to get it perfect before we start shooting."

Emraan also revealed that being a huge fan of Azharuddin himself, the actor was thrilled when he got the call from Ekta Kapoor asking him if he would like to do the role. Emraan further added, "In school time we were passionate about cricket. Everyone had started putting their collars up due to some reasons and there is only one man to be blamed for it, Azhar bhai. And 20 years after I get a call from Ekta Kapoor saying they are planning a movie on the life and times of Mohammad Azharuddin. I yelled and screamed it is the best day of my life to play him. After that, there was panic, nervousness, anxiousness because here is a man, who has been celebrated, minutely seen under the microscope by everyone, by our country for over 30 years and it is a huge task. Our team is very excited, Rajat has written fantastic script, we are very gung ho about it."

The actor posted a photo of himself with the cricketing legend and wrote below, "Reel life !! real life !!" Directed by Tony D'souza, it is produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and MSM Motion Pictures. Telling the story of Azhar's life with its various gradients, it expected to hit the theatres in the May of 2016.