Director Amole Gupte took to Facebook to addres the Saina poster controversy. (Photo: Amole Gupte/Facebook) The makers of Saina recently announced that the Parineeti Chopra-starrer will hit theatres on March 19. They shared the film’s poster and video teaser on various social media platforms on Tuesday. The sports biopic is based on the life of Indian badminton champion, Saina Nehwal.
Soon after the film’s poster was released, while some people showered love on it, others found faults with it. The poster evoked amusing reactions from Twitter users as they quickly pointed out the ‘mistake’ the makers had made regarding a badminton serve.
On Wednesday night, the film’s director Amole Gupte took to Facebook and broke his silence on the controversy. Re-sharing the film’s poster, Gupe wrote, “Too much speculation in the digital media about the poster… “looks like a tennis serve… Saina doing a Sania” etc etc… If Saina is the flying shuttle, then clearly, the girl’s hand with the National colours wristband is the hand of the Indian Girl Child aspiring to reach Saina’s height!!!”
Gupte then continued by saying it was unfortunate that he had to explain the poster created by Rahul Nanda. He said, “High Concept Poster by Rahul Nanda has to be unfortunately explained in detail to a quick reacting, impatient world… not stopping to think before rubbishing anything!!! Socho!!!”
Many Twitter users had remarked that the shuttlecock serve shown in the poster looked more like a tennis serve than badminton. One Twitter user wrote, “Bollywood Creativity at its best. As always.” Another commented, “Tennis bangea Badminton.”
The long-in-the-making biopic on India’s top badminton player, Saina Nehwal, was initially supposed to release in 2020, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, it got delayed. The Parineeti Chopra starrer film is helmed by Gupte and produced by T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar.