Bollywood director to tell us about cricket coach’s death

The mysterious death of Pakistan cricket coach and Englishman Bob Woolmer at this year’s Cricket World Cup will be the back story of a new film by Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt.

I say back story because the movie is actually being described as a love story which just happens to have the death of the cricket coach as a secondary matter. Apparently Woolmer won’t even be mentioned by name.

Bhatt said the following to Reuters….

“We are using a fictional situation, but the people will see the obvious connection.”

“The film is not just about the coach’s death,” he said. “It is a love story against the backdrop of cricket. There is betting, there is match fixing. And because it is a love story there have to be songs too.”

As long as the death of Woolmer has a relevant place in the story and is treated with respect then it’s ok in my eyes, but if it’s just used as a secondary plot just for the exploitation of selling more tickets by promoting the film around his death then I find that a bit insulting.

He’s only been dead a couple of months, and under very mysterious circumstances at that. It was speculated that he had been murdered by a disgruntled fan or murdered because he uncovered a match-fixing scam but I don’t think anyone knows the truth about what happened.

Shooting is set to begin in August. The guy died at the end of March. Is two months long enough to greenlit a movie about someone’s murder? I’m not sure it is.

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