The Dhoni biopic directed by Neeraj Pandey promises many untold stories from the life of Captain Cool. A leading tabloid has learnt that one of them is a love story that didn’t end happily ever after for the cricketer and his first love.
According to a source close to the production, when Mahendra Singh Dhoni was in his early 20s, dreaming of finding a place in the India XI, he met and fell in love with a girl called Priyanka Jha. He was still in his early 20s at the time, but he knew he had found his Miss Right and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
On the field, the six smashing wicket-keeper from Ranchi was shining too, particularly in the ODI format when he was picked for the India A squad to tour Zimbabwe and Kenya in 2003-2004. In the tri-nation tournament with Kenya and Pakistan, he helped India A chase down 223 against their arch-rivals with a half-century, following up with consecutive centuries, scoring 362 runs in six innings at an average of 72.40, and catching the eye of Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri.
But while he won laurels, tragedy struck and his girl was killed in an accident. He was shattered when he returned home to learn the ‘secret’ and was in mourning for a year. For a while those close to him believed that he might fall apart but slowly, showing the strength of character that would take him to the top of his career, Dhoni clawed his way back to find a place among the boys in blue.
In the second match of the ODI series against Pakistan in Vishakhapatnam in 2004-2005, he scored 148 off only 123 deliveries, surpassing the earlier record for the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper, a record that he would rewrite before the year ended.
After that, there was no looking back as he continued to make history. But he never forgot his first love even after he found love again with Sakshi Singh Rawat, whom he tied the knot with on July 4, 2010, in Dehradun, a day after they were engaged. Sakshi, played by Kiara Advani, has a role too in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, that unveils on September 30 with Sushant Singh Rajput in the title role.
It was earlier reported that Neeraj Pandey had taken Dhoni’s consent to incorporate this track in the film as this girl’s entry and exit marked a turning point in his life. And after some deliberation, he agreed that this important chapter in his life needed to be told to the world.
