Indian sprint hero inspires Bollywood biopicThe courageous story of the “Flying Sikh” — India’s most successful ever track athlete, who overcame childhood tragedy to seek Olympic glory — is the latest Bollywood biopic to hit cinemas. “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” (Run, Milkha, Run) charts the journey of young Milkha Singh who lost his family during India’s tumultuous partition in 1947 and went on to compete at the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games.

His rise to elite athlete made Singh a national hero and the film, which opens in theatres worldwide on Friday, joins the Bollywood trend of movies based on or inspired by real stories.“We all grew up with the folklore of Milkha, he’s a larger-than-life figure for us,” said the film’s director Rakeysh Mehra. “He’s like what Pele meant to football, or what Jesse Owens meant for track and field for the West.”