Sushant Singh Rajput says that he was excited, not nervous, to play Dhoni on screen

Mumbai: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who plays the role of Indian cricketer M S Dhoni, in an upcoming biopic was excited, rather than under pressure, to portray the legendary sportsperson on silver screen.

“There was more excitement than pressure. I had the opportunity to know his (Dhoni) story closely from him (Dhoni) and play his part on screen. So there was more excitement but not pressure,” Sushant told reporters here at the trailer launch of ‘M S Dhoni: The Untold Story’ this evening.“When you do a film you improve as an actor but there are some films where you end up becoming a good human being after doing it (film),” he said.The ‘Kai Po Che’ actor revealed it was in 2007 that he first met the Ranchi-born cricketer with his family. “I have enormous respect for him (Dhoni),” the 30-year-old actor added.

The ODI captain, who was present at the trailer launch, revealed Sushant used to often ask a lot of questions to him to understand his life story. “He (Sushant) used to ask a lot of questions initially I was OK but after 15-20 minutes I was like ‘I am talking about only myself…I need a break now’,” said the 35-year-old batsman-wicketkeeper, under whose captaincy India won 2007 T-20 and 2011 50-over World Cups.The biopic, directed by Neeraj Pandey, releases on September

PTI