From pitch to silver screen

It appears the attention of international sports stars is turning to Tamil cinema.  While we reported that Irfan Pathan is debuting in K'town as a key character in Vikram's next, the big news now is the ace cricketer Harbhajan ‘Bhajji’ Singh is making his foray into Tamil films with Dikkiloona in which Santhanam will be playing a triple role. Said to be a sci-fi comedy, the movie is directed by Karthik Yogi, a promising writer in Tamil cinema.

The makers KJR Studios officially announced on their social media handle that  Harbhajan Singh will be essaying a vital character in the film.

Ask Karthik as to how he zeroed in on Harbhajan Singh and he says, "He portrays a character and not himself as a cricketer. Being a fan of Harbhajan, I follow his tweets on social media, which not only reveal his love for Tamil language but also his penchant for Tamil cinema. He is also into social initiatives through his social media handle. And this quality of the veteran cricketer is one of the reasons for me to choose him for this film. My makers also gave a go ahead. I went and met him at a common place in Mumbai and he listened to the full narration."

Harbhajan is not only a darling of CSK fans, but he is equally popular in the south, especially in Tamil Nadu with his frequent poetic tweets in Tamil, many of which carry Kollywood references. His latest post after going on board Dikkiloona is also quite interesting.

Harbhajan Singh thanked Santhanam and the rest of the team on Twitter in Tamil. His post in Tamil roughly translates to "I thank KJR studios, Dikkiloona, soldiers factory and Santhanam for introducing me in Tamil cinema. A land ruled by Thalaivar, Thala and Thalapathi. I am on the silver screen because of you."

Bhajji has also acknowledged Saravanan Pandian in his tweet for the growth of his popularity in Tamil Nadu. And Saravanan is the one who is coining those interesting words for Harbhajan's tweets in Tamil.

An engineer from Chinnalapatti in Dindigul district, Saravanan has been an ardent fan of Harbhajan ever since the off-spinner performed a hat trick in the epic Kolkata Test of 2001. Saravanan had stood as his strong defender on social media from those who trolled him time and again. Impressed with Saravanan's sincerity, the cricketer asked him to manage his Tamil tweets.