Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 26, 2015)
Saqib Saleem, who bats for Sohail Khan's Mumbai Heroes in the Celebrity Cricket League, admits that if not an actor, he would have become a cricketer. So, when Rohit Dhawan offered him the role of an aggressive, contemporary batsman in his upcoming action-adventure, Dishoom, Saqib immediately agreed.Buzz is this cricketer is modelled on Virat Kohli? “He could be Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina or Rohit Sharma,“ says Saqib, who has already shot for four days. “The major cricketing portions will be shot during the Abu Dhabi schedule with the UAE cricket team, with whom I will train as well. I'll be playing a lot of cricket, hitting a few sixes too. My biggest fear is that the audience will say that I acted well, but played bad cricket,“ he laughs.
Saqib, who played for the Under-19 team in Delhi and captained his college team, reveals that Rohit has been monitoring his look for the film. “He narrated the entire script to me, focussing on the dramatic scenes. He is the kind of director who loves to pamper his actors. And I'm sure there's lots of 'me' in the film,“ Saqib beams.