FILM · 2016 · INDIA
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story
37 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (37)
- #001
Before signing on to the cast, Akshay Kumar showed great interest in playing the role of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but director Neeraj Pandey politely turned him down because of his slight resemblance to Dhoni.
- #002
The school shown in the trailer is Mahendra Singh Dhoni's actual school, and the same classrooms and grounds were used.
- #003
Former cricketer and current selector Kiran More trained Sushant Singh Rajput for the role of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
- #004
As can be seen in the film, the Yamaha RX100 was the first motorcycle Mahendra Singh Dhoni bought, for 4,500 Rupees, and attending cricket tours meant the motorcycle needed a bit of maintenance. MS went on to restore this particular bike to its full glory.
- #005
Sushant Singh Rajput was injured while practising Mahendra Singh Dhoni's famous helicopter shot. He was later trained by Dhoni himself.
- #006
The film's promotional trailer was released on 15 March 2016, the day the 2016 ICC World T20 began.
- #007
Mrs Sakshi Dhoni provided her real wedding dress for the film's wedding scene.
- #008
Bhoomika Chawla's last film before her return to Hindi cinema after a nine-year gap was Gandhi, My Father (2007).
- #009
Among the many VFX shots created for M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, the VFX team worked mainly on 250 complex shots requiring head and body replacement to create a slimmer version of Sushant Singh Rajput in the role of the young Dhoni. Another challenge the team took on was matching Sushant's head size, posture and body frame to Dhoni's in live broadcast footage of the various cricket matches featured in the film, which required months of planning, preparation and extensive visual effects. A production crew of 120 artists worked on the project for 90 days to complete a total of 910 VFX shots for the film.
- #010
The film was made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh one day after its release.
- #011
The film also shows that during Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's 2006 tour of India, he was quite taken with Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hairstyle and asked him not to cut it.
- #012
Rajput trained for four hours every day, starting at 6:00 each morning.
- #013
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was 30 years old when he won the World Cup for India in 2011. Sushant Singh Rajput was also 30 when he shot the film. The film begins and ends with the backdrop of the 2011 World Cup.
- #014
Dhoni was not involved in writing the screenplay.
- #015
Arun Pandey says that 98% of the content in the film is real.
- #016
Director Pandey, who had not seen any of Sushant Singh Rajput's films, followed his instincts when it came to casting him.
- #017
This was Neeraj Pandey's fourth critically acclaimed film as a director, after A Wednesday, Special 26 and Baby, and Anupam Kher appeared in a leading or supporting role in all of these films.
- #018
The idea for the biopic came to Dhoni's manager, Arun Pandey, after an incident at the airport following the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final.
- #019
Neeraj Pandey scrapped the Marathi version of the film because the dubbing was not completed in time.
- #020
While Dhoni was at an airport, a boy approached him and asked a question about motivation. Dhoni sat down beside the young boy and spent five minutes answering the question. His manager, Arun Pandey, asked why he had devoted so much time, and Dhoni told him how important his answer could be in helping and motivating the boy. That incident later led Pandey to make a film about Dhoni, telling him that his story had the power to motivate millions of children like that boy.
- #021
In 2016 there were two Bollywood films based on the true stories of two Indian cricket captains. The first was Azhar (2016), based on the biography of former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin. The second was M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), based on the biography of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, former Indian cricket captain. Rajesh Sharma appeared in both films: he played a bookmaker in Azhar and Dhoni's mentor in M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story.
- #022
Anupam Kher plays the father of the lead character, a cricketer, for the third time, having previously played Harman Baweja's father in the cricket-based film Victory (2009) and Shahid Kapoor's father in Dil Bole Hadippa (2009).
- #023
Pandey revealed several previously hidden aspects of Dhoni's life, including that Dhoni initially hated cricket and preferred football instead, that his signature "helicopter shot" was taught to him by his friend Santosh Lal, that he liked women who did not recognise him, that he and Yuvraj Singh had close ties even before they became stars, and that it was Dhoni who moved Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid out of the team. He wanted to build a younger team with better fielders for the 2011 World Cup and was not pleased with the named cricketers' fitness levels.
- #024
Former wicketkeeper Kiran More personally coached Rajput for thirteen months, including in wicketkeeping and batting, before he began learning Dhoni's body language.
- #025
To prepare for the role, Rajput had to undergo extensive, lengthy training for 18 months before filming began, and he watched videos of Dhoni for hours, to the point that he began to subconsciously pick up some of his traits.
- #026
For example, to grasp Dhoni's trademark "helicopter shot", the team would analyse it carefully and fix the bowling machine to a single spot, after which Rajput would play the same shot at least 200 to 300 times a day for a week, until it came to him naturally.
- #027
Dhoni's real school teacher was cast in a role in the film.
- #028
M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story had the widest release of any Bollywood film in the week ending 2 October 2016, opening on that date in roughly 4,500 screens worldwide across 61 countries, both in India and internationally.
- #029
Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor gave the film a positive review, praising Rajput's performance in particular.
- #030
During the film's release, Sushant Singh Rajput told Mahendra Singh Dhoni that in the film everyone would be looking for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
- #031
Disha Patani's debut.
- #032
Sushant Singh Rajput had to grow his hair long for the character, matching the long hair Mahendra Singh Dhoni was quite famous for in the early years of his career.
- #033
Disha Patani, who was actually Tiger Shroff's girlfriend, made her debut with Sushant Singh Rajput (it was not Sushant's debut), while Sushant Singh Rajput's girlfriend Kriti Sanon made her debut with Tiger Shroff in Heropanti.
- #034
Anupam Kher and Sushant Singh Rajput are working together for the first time.
- #035
The film's release date was postponed from 2 September to 30 September.
- #036
All the international matches, including the final of the T20 World Cup that India won against Pakistan and the 2011 final, were real footage, with only Mahendra Singh Dhoni, played by Sushant Singh Rajput, replaced, which gave the film an original touch.
- #037
The film opens with India batting in the 2011 World Cup final and ends with India's victory in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
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