My phone has been ringing incessantly ever since it became public knowledge that my father’s life story will be made into a Bollywood movie.

I have been asked this question more than a few times, and I have no hesitation in saying it again: I think my father is one of the greatest sportspersons in the history of Indian sports. As for comparisons with me, I think I will have to win a Major or two to even stand on the same platform as him. What he managed to achieve despite the challenges, and the recognition he gets from everyone – including today’s youngsters who were born 20 years after his major wins – is just amazing.

My father was one of the millions of migrants from Pakistan, who lost everything, including his family, during the painful days of Partition. To cut a long story short, what still gives me goose-bumps is the way he thought. Sleeping under a street-light, with tattered clothes on his body and without a single decent meal for months, Milkha Singh was struck with a thought – he wanted to be a world champion!

Imagine, a youngster who was so hungry that he was beyond care, thinking of being a world champion instead of wishing for a sumptuous lunch. To me, it is that kind of a thinking which made him the man that he is.

We have regularly received requests from Bollywood producers and scriptwriters over the years, but dad was never interested. And then, I got a call from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Now I have been a huge fan of ‘Rang de Basanti’, a brilliant film that he made on the challenges face by Indian youth in today’s time and age. And when I met him, and Prasoon Joshi, a legendary name in Indian advertising who is now also a very successful scriptwriter and lyricist, I was convinced they are the best people to take dad’s real story and transform it to its ‘reel’ version.

Then I, along with my mother, sisters and Kudrat, had to sit with dad and convince him. He agreed only because we told him how important it is for today’s generation to know a story like his.

From what I have been given to understand, Rakeysh is hoping to complete the final draft of the screenplay and start shooting soon. He will then complete the casting and is keen to release the movie just before the 2012 Olympics Games.

The film has been titled ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, or ‘Run Milkha Run’, which is almost like the famous line from Forrest Gump. I just hope that the film is as inspiring as the Tom Hanks starrer.