Bhubaneswar: Six days after the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Khurda district sent a notice to Ajit Andhare, producer of ‘Budhia Singh: Born to Run’, a film based on the amazing story of child marathoner Budhia Singh of Odisha, asking for the whereabouts of the wonder kid, Andhare on Friday sent a letter to CWC requesting it to grant Buddhia leave to promote the film.
The Manoj Vajpayee-starrer film is scheduled to hit the screens on August 5.
Though the letter is yet to be officially confirmed, sources said the CWC received the letter this afternoon that said that the producer wants the CWC to grant Budhia leave from July 24 to August 5. Budhia reportedly went missing from the Sports hostel here where he has been lodged since being separated from his erstwhile coach and mentor Biranchi Das. He had left the hostel for home on May 10 and was supposed to return after the summer vacation on June 7 but never did.
The director of the film Soumendra Padhi told OTV that the movie’s producer wanted Budhia to promote the film.
“The producer wants Budhia to be present with Vajpayee for its promotion,” he stated.
Meanwhile, after Budhia’s sudden ‘disappearance’ hogged the headlines, the Tamil Nadu counterpart of Commissionerate police on Monday recorded the statement of marathoner Budhia Singh at Kodaikanal and said he is safe. Budhia, along with his mother Sukanti, was spotted in Kodaikanal on Sunday.
"We contacted our Tamil Nadu counterpart and got Budhia's statement recorded through Kodaikanal police. Budhia said he was on holiday with his mother. Both are safe," said DCP (Bhubaneswar) Satyabrata Bhoi.
Police sources said Budhia and his mother left Bhubaneswar nearly a fortnight ago without informing the authorities at the sports hostel, where he was admitted by the state government in 2007 for training.
The mother-son duo visited Bangalore, Mysore and Ooty before arriving at Kodaikanal on Sunday. They are scheduled to tour Coimbatore and Mumbai before returning to Odisha next week, police said.