Maidaan first look: Ajay Devgn to play football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in his next

Ajay Devgn on Monday announced his next film based on the golden years of Indian football from 1952-62. Titled Maidaan, the movie will be directed by Amit Ravinder Nath Sharma of "Badhaai Ho!" fame. The actor shared the first poster of the film on Twitter and wrote, ''Maidaan kicks off today!''

The film will feature south star Keerthy Suresh opposite Devgn. Ajay will play Syed Abdul Rahim, the architect of modern football in India. Syed was the Indian football coach and manager of the Indian national team from 1950 until his death in 1963. Saiwyn Quadros will write the screenplay, while Ritesh Shah will pen the dialogues. The film is presented by Zee Studios and Boney Kapoor. Kapoor will also serve as the producer along with Akash Chawla and Arunava Joy Sengupta.

#maidaankicksoff today! pic.twitter.com/hbkzd727rh

— Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) August 19, 2019

Talking about the film, Boney had earlier told India Today in an interview, ''I was amazed that not many are aware of someone as significant as Syed Abdul Rahim. He’s an unsung hero whose achievements must be saluted. His team had heroes like Chunni Goswami, PK Banerjee, Balaram, Franco and Arun Ghosh. It takes someone like Ajay Devgn to play Syed Abdul Rahim. With him on board, I can just hope that our film inspires youngsters to play football, and India soon to bring the World Cup home.''

Elated and proud to announce a story never told as @ZeeStudios_ #BoneyKapoor & @freshlimefilms come together for a biopic on India’s legendary #Football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim, starring @ajaydevgn, directed by @CinemaPuraDesi, screenplay by @SaiwynQ, and dialogues by @writish. pic.twitter.com/vzaLJya67x

— Zee Studios (@ZeeStudios_) July 13, 2018

Apart from Maidaan, Ajay Devgn will also feature in Bhuj: Ride of India. The film boasts of a huge starcast including Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati and will release around Independence Day next year.

He also has a biopic titled Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior in which he plays the title role of Taanaji. The film also stars Saif Ali Khan and is scheduled to release in January next year.