Harshvardhan will not play Abhinav Bindra

Olympic gold winner and sharpshooter Abhinav Bindra's biopic went through several upheavals before finally landing at the doorstep of Anil Kapoor and his son, Harshvardhan.

Now, it seems the project has been put to sleep... at least for the time being.

The father-son duo has moved on to another project entitled Thar, to be directed by actor-turned-director Raj Singh Choudhary (he had starred in Anurag Kashyap's Gulaal).

The film is being shot in Rajasthan for Netflix and co-stars Fatima Sana Sheikh.

The Bindra biopic was to be directed Kannan Iyer, who had directed the horror film, Ek Thi Daayan.

Anil was to play Abhinav's father and Harshvardhan was cast as the sportsperson.

Earlier, the late Rishi Kapoor had been roped in to play the father while Ranbir Kapoor -- who shares his birthday with Abhinav -- was to play Bindra.

There was some talk of Varun Dhawan taking up the Bindra role too, but he has decided not to do real-life characters so early in his career.

Incidentally, Raj Singh Choudhary is ready with another directorial venture called Shaadistan, which stars Kirti Kulhari as a singer. He is currently locking a deal for it with a leading OTT platform.