After Milka Singh and Mary Kom, MS Dhoni's Biopic in the Making; Sushant Singh Rajput to Play Indian Captain

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has grabbed the opportunity to star as cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Neeraj Pandey of "A Wednesday" fame is reportedly helming the Indian captain's biography, for which the "Kai Po Che" star has been zeroed in.

"Dhoni has already given his go ahead to the film. Even as Sushant is shooting for Dibakar's (Banerjee) film, he is studying Dhoni's mannerisms as much as possible through his interviews and match clippings. In fact, he has also visited Ranchi (Dhoni's hometown) and interacted with the locals as part of his preparation," revealed a source to Hindustan Times.

The film would trace the popular cricketer's rise to fame from his humble beginnings and would also feature some parts of his personal life with wife Sakshi.

The project is expected to be made on a lavish budget of 95 crore and would be shot in varied locations, spanning from Dhoni's hometown in Ranchi, Jharkhand to South Africa and London.

Even though Sushant was spotted meeting Dhoni recently, the film's schedule cannot be set immediately, owing to the actor's prior commitments for the Dibakar film, followed by Shekhar Kapur's long-awaited "Paani". The film is expected to start rolling in early 2015, reported the tabloid.

With the biopic, Dhoni would join the likes of former track and field sprinter Milkha Singh and boxer Mary Kom, whose lives have been immortalised in the celluloid.

Farhan Akhtar as The Flying Sikh made a tremendous presence at the box office in "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" (2013) and Priyanka Chopra is presently training tough for the Olympic medallist Mary Kom's biopic.

This will be the second film where Sushant will be seen as a cricketer. In his debut film "Kai Po Che!", the actor was seen in the role of a cricket coach.