The late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput in his debut movie Kai Po Che! played the role of a cricket coach. And then a few years later, Sushant portrayed the role of MS Dhoni in the former Indian captain’s biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.
In Kai Po Che!, Sushant trained Digvijay Deshmukh’s character Ali, an aspiring cricketer. Interestingly, last year at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 auctions, Deshmukh was roped in by reigning champions, Mumbai Indians (MI).
Following Sushant’s untimely demise on Sunday (June 14), Deshmukh recalled a promise he made to the late actor and how he regrets it now.
“He was passionate about cricket. On the last day of the shoot, I had promised him I’d not meet him till I became a decent level cricketer. This year, when I got selected to play for Mumbai Indians, I decided to meet him, but then the lockdown happened, and now he is no more,” said Deshmukh in a sombre tone, and added, “I wish the lockdown wouldn’t have been there, at least then I would have been able to fulfil the promise I made to him. I failed to do so.”
Also, during the shoot of MS Dhoni: The Untold Story Sushant visited the hometown of the 22-year-old Pune pacer, but couldn’t meet due to the promise made to him. “Even then, I did not meet him because I wanted to keep the promise. I regret it,” MI’s new recruit added further.
On Friday (June 19), MI in a tribute to the late actor posted about the promise on social media and captioned it as, “Whenever Kai Po Che’s ‘Ali’ takes the field next, his master ‘Ishaan’ will smile from the heavens.”
☹️💔
Whenever Kai Po Che’s ‘Ali’ takes field next, his master ‘Ishaan’ will smile from the heavens 🤗
📸: @utvfilms#OneFamily pic.twitter.com/yLuJiE6QMD
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) June 18, 2020
Deshmukh, who was bought by the Mumbai-based franchise for his base price of INR 20 lakhs, made his debut in Ranji Trophy and the T20 debut in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last year. The 2020 edition of IPL was suspended for an indefinite period on April 15 due to ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but now reports are thereof conducting the tournament in the September-October window.
