''Saina'' is a 2021 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

directed by

Amole Gupte Amole Gupte (born c. 1962) is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and director, known for his work on the 2007 Bollywood film ''Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth)'' as creative director and screenwriter. He conceived the film along with his wif ...

and produced by

Bhushan Kumar Bhushan Kumar Dua (born 27 November 1977) is an Indian film producer and music producer. He is the chairman and managing director of Super Cassettes Industries Limited, also known as T-Series. He is known for his work in Bollywood. Career Kum ...

, Krishan Kumar, Sujay Jairaj and Rashesh Shah under the banner of T-Series and Front Foot Pictures. Based on the life of

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player

Saina Nehwal Saina Nehwal (; born 17 March 1990) is an Indian professional badminton player. A former world no. 1, she has won 24 international titles, which includes ten Superseries titles. Although she reached the world's 2nd in 2009, it was only in 2015 ...

, the film stars

Parineeti Chopra Parineeti Chopra (; born 22 October 1988) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. Chopra is a recipient of several accolades, including a Filmfare and a National Film Award. She has appeared in '' Forbes India'' Celebrity 1 ...

as Nehwal. The film was initially set to release in September 2020, but was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

. It was theatrically released on 26 March 2021.

Plot

The film traces Saina's journey from her training at

Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad The Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, formerly known as Fateh Maidan, is a multi-purpose sports stadium in Hyderabad, Telangana. The stadium is primarily used for cricket and association football. The stadium was renamed in 1967 in memory of Lal Bah ...

, her struggles, her parents sacrifices for her dreams, her passion for badminton, her relationship with Kashyap and her coach Rajan to her becoming World's No.1.

Cast

Manav Kaul Manav Kaul (born 19 December 1976) is an Indian theatre director, playwright, author, actor and filmmaker. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the films '' Tumhari Sulu'' (2017) and '' Saina'' (2021 ...

as Coach Sarvadhamaan Rajan, a fictionalized version of

Pullela Gopichand Pullela Gopichand (born 16 November 1973) is a former Indian badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second In ...

* Eshan Naqvi as

Parupalli Kashyap Parupalli Kashyap (born 8 September 1986) is an Indian badminton player. A former World No.6, he trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy. He was awarded the Arjuna Award by the Government of India in 2012. He created history by reaching the qu ...

Meghna Malik Meghna Malik is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi television and films. She is popularly known as the high-handed Ammaji of Colors TV's popular show ''Na Aana Is Des Laado''. The show dealt with the issue of female infanticide and other a ...

as Usha Rani Nehwal, Saina's mother * Subhrajyoti Barat as Harvir Singh Nehwal, Saina's father *

Ankur Vikal Ankur Vikal is an Indian theatre and film actor. Career He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 2000, after studying Architecture at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has acted with the Motley Theatre Grou ...

as Coach Jeewan Kumar * Tawhid Rike Zaman as Rohan's Friend * Sharrman Dey as Damodar * Sameer Bassi as Rohan * Taiyaba Mansuri as young Abu Nehwal

Production

Development

revealing the details of the film, on her Twitter account announced the film on 26 April 2017. Earlier,

Shraddha Kapoor Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987 or 1989Bhushan Kumar Bhushan Kumar Dua (born 27 November 1977) is an Indian film producer and music producer. He is the chairman and managing director of Super Cassettes Industries Limited, also known as T-Series. He is known for his work in Bollywood. Career Kum ...

that

Shraddha Kapoor Shraddha Kapoor (born 3 March 1987 or 1989Manav Kaul Manav Kaul (born 19 December 1976) is an Indian theatre director, playwright, author, actor and filmmaker. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the films '' Tumhari Sulu'' (2017) and '' Saina'' (2021 ...

was finalized to play the role of

who is Nehwal's coach.

Training

From mid June, Chopra was training herself in playing badminton and practicing the stances of Nehwal. As many as 12 courts were recreated to represent international venues where Saina Nehwal has played.

Reception

Box office

The film collected total 1.2

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

in its theatrical run, it was declared flop and disastrous. It was impacted due to

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Critical reception

Saina received mixed to positive reviews from critics with praises towards Chopra's performance. Yogesh Mishra of 'Bollywood Town' says "Movie beautifully talks about the success saga of a middle-class girl from Haryana". Shubhra Gupta of

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

gave 3 out of 5 stars and noted that Parineeti "serves, drops and smashes as hebadminton champ", writing " hopragives us a good, solid Saina Nehwal. When she raises her racket after a hard-fought win, you cheer." Film critic

Anna M. M. Vetticad Anna Mercy Mathews Vetticad, commonly known as Anna M. M. Vetticad, is an Indian film critic and journalist. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad has also hosted her own interview show, ''Star Trek'', on Headlines Today ...

applauded Chopra for rising to the challenge of playing the sports icon, writing "The actor plays down her naturally vivacious personality and sparkling eyes for the not-so-showy character she plays here. Most impressively, she gets the body language of a sportsperson right and actually looks the part on court." She gave the film 2.75 star out of 5 and pointed out that the film erases Gopichand and skirts inconvenient truths. Renuka Vyavahare of

Times Of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...

gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Saina is a simple ode to eternal optimism". For Chopra's performance she said, "Parineeti push herself in this physically demanding role".

Accolades

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is composed by

Amaal Mallik Amaal Mallik (born 16 June 1990) is an Indian music director, composer, singer, music producer, arranger, background scorer, performer and lyricist. He is the elder son of Daboo Malik and Jyothi Malik, and grandson of Sardar Malik. He debuted ...

, produced, arranged & co-written by

Meghdeep Bose Meghdeep Bose is an Indian Record producer, music producer, composer, arranger and singer. His works include songs Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, What Jhumka?, Tiger Zinda Hai, Swag Se Swagat, Pathaan (film), Jhoome Jo Pathaan, Chhichhore, K ...

with lyrics by

Manoj Muntashir Manoj Shukla (born 27 February 1976), better known by his stage name Manoj Shukla ‛Muntashir’, is an Indian lyricist, poet and screenwriter. He wrote several successful Hindi songs for films. These have included "Teri Mitti", "Galliyan", "Te ...

and

Kunaal Vermaa Kunaal Vermaa is an Indian lyricist and poet from Sri Madhopur, Sikar district, Rajasthan, India. His debut song as a lyricist was Hasi from the movie Hamari Adhuri Kahani composed by Ami Mishra Ami Mishra is an Indian singer-songwriter and ...

References

External links

*
Saina
on

Bollywood Hungama Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000. The website provides ...

2020s Hindi-language films Indian biographical films Biographical films about sportspeople Cultural depictions of badminton players Cultural depictions of Indian women T-Series (company) films Badminton films 2020s biographical films {{Hindi-film-stub