Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan opens up on Vijay Sethupathi's exit from his biopic '800'

South actor Vijay Sethupathi is currently basking in the success of Atlee and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. He was also supposed to star in former Sri Lanka cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan’s biopic, 800.

However, the actor backed out from the project and the reason will shock you. In a recent conversation with Zoom, Muttiah Muralitharan himself spoke in details about 800. The film now stars Madhur Mittal as the lead.

Revealing the reason behind Vijay Sethupathi‘s exit, Muralitharan said that the actor’s family was threatened and this had put him under massive pressure. Muralitharan went on to add that Sethupathi was director M S Sripathy’s choice.

“During my time at the IPL, my director mentioned that Vijay Sethupathi was staying in the same hotel for a shoot. He offered to arrange a meeting. Although unsure initially, Vijay being a fan of mine as a cricketer agreed to meet. He allotted two hours, five days later, post 8 pm for a narration of the script. After hearing it, he expressed genuine enthusiasm for the film. He stated that he would not let go of such a unique opportunity and was eager to be part of the project. Subsequently, we sealed the deal with him and the production house also came on board,” Muralitharan said.

Further elaborating on Sethupati’s exit, the former Sri Lanka cricketer noted, “He was under tremendous pressure, and they were threatening Vijay’s family also,” he said. Muralitharan went on to add, “This is a sports film and it is not related to anything political. It is just a true story of a man.”

According to reports, the controversy sparked following allegations that the Sri Lankan spin legend had supported his government during the civil war with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Starring Slumdog Millionaire famed Madhur Mittal, 800 is slated to release on 6 October in multiple languages including Tamil, Sinhala and English.

Meanwhile, Vijay Sethupathi will be seen next in Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas alongside Katrina Kaif. The film will hit theatres on 15 December.

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