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.