Muttiah Muralitharan biopic: Tamil superstar 'Makkal Selvan' Vijay Sethupathi to play lead in '800'

Bengaluru, October 8: Tamil super star Vijay Sethupathy will play the role of Muttiah Muralitharan in the biopic of the Sri Lanka spin legend, the highest wicket-taker in Tests and ODIs.

The biopic has been titled as 800, a number that hints at Muralitharan's Test wickets. The movie is directed by MS Sripathy and will be produced by Movie Train Motion Pictures and Dar Motion Pictures.

Vijay Sethupathy, known as Makkal Selvan for his legion of fans, has revealed in a recent chat that he has been taking some lessons and interacting with Muralitharan in preparation for the biopic. However, there was no official confirmation on this till Thursday (October 8).

Sethupathy shot into fame through a police, action, drama 'Sethupathi' in 2016 and confirmed his status as a Tollywood super star with the smash hit 'Dharma Durai' a year later.

However, other cast and crew of the film is yet to be announced. The off-spin wizard Muralitharan has taken 800 Tests wickets from 133 matches with 67 5-wicket hauls and 22 10-wicket hauls. From 350 ODIs, he has grabbed 534 wickets with 10 five-wicket hauls. All those figures are way ahead of any other bowler in the history of cricket.

In IPL, Muralitharan has played for Chennai Super Kings, and his wife Mathi Malar is a doctor based in Chennai. Muralitharan has also played for Royal Challengers Bangalore. At present, he is the bowling mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad.