Harbhajan Singh pads up for silver screen

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

Confirming the news, the production house, KJR Studios, officially announced it on their social media page, too, stating that Bhajji will be essaying a vital character in the film.

We asked Karthik about how he zeroed in on Harbhajan Singh. “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 complete narration,” explains Karthik.

Incidentally, Harbhajan is as much the darling of CSK fans as he’s popular in the south, especially in Tamil Nadu, because of his frequent poetic tweets in Tamil, many of which carry Kollywood references. His latest post after getting on board Dikkiloona was also quite interesting, roughly translating in Tamil as, “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.”

The fan moments

In his above tweet, Bhajji also acknowledged Saravanan Pandiyan for the growth of his popularity in Tamil Nadu. For the uninitiated, Bhajji’s Tamil tweets are courtesy Saravanan, a fan whom he referred to as his ‘number 1 fan’ in a tweet in January this year.

An engineer from Chinnalapatti in Dindigul District, Saravanan has been an ardent fan of Harbhajan ever since the off-spinner got a hat trick in the epic Kolkata Test of 2001. Saravanan also stood as Bhajji’s strong supporter on social media, repeatedly defending him from trolls. Impressed with Saravanan’s sincerity, the cricketer even asked him to manage his Tamil tweets. And given how those tweets have led him to Dikkiloona, Saravanan did deserve a share of the praise.