Biopic announced on India’s star weightlifter Karnam Malleswari

The story of yet another star from the Indian sporting fraternity is set to enthrall us as a biopic on weightlifter Karnam Malleswari has been announced on Monday. On the occasion of the athlete’s birthday, the makers revealed that her journey will be translated onto the silver screen as a pan-Indian film.

Taking to Twitter, Kona Film Corporation shared, “On her birthday, we proudly announce our next, a biopic on Karnam Malleswari, the first Indian woman to win a medal at Olympics. A multilingual Pan Indian movie. Happy Birthday, Karnam Malleswari.”

The movie will be produced jointly by MVV Cinema, of MVV Satyanarayana and Kona Film Corporation, of Kona Venkat. The biopic on Karnam Malleswari will be directed by Sanjana Reddy, who made her debut with Raj Tarun’s Raju Gadu. The film which is being penned by writer, Kona Venkat, is yet to be titled.

Weightlifter, Karnam Malleswari was born in Voosavanipeta near Amadalavalasa in Andhra Pradesh. She began her career as a weightlifter when she was twelve. She marked her place in Olympic and Indian sports history at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. As she lifted 110 kg in the “snatch” and 130 kg in the “clean and jerk” for a total of 240 kg, she took the bronze medal and became India’s first woman to win an Olympic medal. Even before her Olympic win, Malleswari was a two-time weightlifting world champion with 29 international medals, which includes 11 gold medals.

In 1997, she married a fellow weightlifter called Rajesh Tyagi and gave birth to a son in 2001. She planned to return for the 2002 Commonwealth Games but withdrew due to the death of her father. She retired after failing to score at the 2004 Olympics. With biopic of Karnam Malleswari being made, it will be interesting to see how the athlete’s story unfolds on the silver screen.