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Actor playing Manoj Prabhakar in Emraan Hashmi's Azhar goes underground?

4 May 2016

After some media reports that the ex-cricketer is planning to sue the makers, actor Karanvir Sharma - who is allegedly portraying the role of Manoj has gone underground.

"Karanvir is very professional so it is very unlike him to be incommunicado. We wanted him for a promotional event that we were planning, but he is suddenly unreachable," says director Tony D'Souza.

Manoj Prabhakar's infamous sting operation made him one of the whistle-blowers of the match fixing scandal. Unconfirmed reports indicate that his character is allegedly the main 'villain' in the film. There have been some unsubstantiated reports that he is resorting to threats to keep his character and name out of any controversy. When there were attempts made to contact Manoj in order to verify the claims, he remained unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, the makers seem to be in no mood to relent as there are some open references to several ex-cricketers who played alongside Azhar at that time, be it the characters who are enacting the role or even the names that have been mentioned in the film's poster. In fact some big cricketers have reportedly tried to reach out to the makers to find out about their portrayal in the film.

A source adds, "It's public knowledge that if you make a film on someone like Azharuddin - one of the most loved and yet most controversial cricket captains that the country has seen - there are bound to be controversies and some nervous moments for those who find themselves mentioned in there. However, the one thing that stands out is that the film is providing no viewing access to any personalities, be it big or small." Going by the tag line of the film, it seems like May 13 is not just a 'Judgment Day' for the makers and Azhar , but also for some big names in the world of cricket! We say, bring it on!