Budhia leaves for Delhi to promote biopic on him

Bhubaneswar: Boy wonder Budhia Singh, who left everyone guessing about his whereabouts for nearly a month before returning to Odisha last week, today left for New Delhi with his mother for the promotion of “Budhia Singh, Born to Run”, the Hindi film based on his phenomenal story of becoming the world's first child marathoner at the tender age of four.

This was informed by Soumendra Padhi, director of the biopic to the media this afternoon.

Child artiste Mayur Mahendra Patole plays the role of Budhia in the film while Manoj Vajpayree essays the role of his erstwhile coach cum mentor Biranchi Das, who was shot dead by gangster Sandeep Acharya on April 13, 2008.

The film is slated for all-India release on August 5.

The teenager, who had drawn the attention of the sports lovers across the world for his incredible 65-km marathon from Puri to Bhubaneswar at the age of 4, left for the national capital this evening with his mother Sukanti for promotion of the movie which is scheduled for release on August 5.

Budhia and his mother had returned here after vacationing at Kodaikanal, Mysore and Mumbai for a month at the expense of the makers of the film, sending the authorities at the sports hostel where he stayed, the police and the child welfare committee (CWC) into a tizzy.