Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who is known for making hard hitting movies like ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Delhi 6’, said that his upcoming movie ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, a movie based on the life of legendary athlete Milkha Singh, is not a sports movie but the movie talks about human spirit.

“I will like to clarify that the film is not based on sports or about a sportsman. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. What I saw was a story of a boy who lost his parents in his childhood at 12 years. He went on to make his country proud in the future,” said Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra to IANS.

Farhan Akhtar, who has acted in movies like ‘Rock On!’, ‘Karthik Calling Karthik’ and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, plays the role of Flying Sikh in the movie. The actor said that he feels honored to have got to play Milkha Singh in this film.

“The opportunity of acting or directing a film on someone so inspirational is rare. I am so happy that I got this opportunity. I promised Milkhaji that I will do a lot of effort," he said.

The actor underwent rigorous training for the movie.

“I had to completely change my running style. The training was completely different. You have to build up your endurance and stamina. But the purpose of the film was higher than what we were doing; this removes your ego from the picture. You try and put in whatever is required to achieve the goal," he said.

Farhan Akhtar said that Milkha Singh’s story inspired him and that nothing seemed tough for him.

“We were all inspired by Milkha Singh's life. We never felt something was tough," he said.

The movie also stars Sonam Kapoor, Yograj Singh and Prakash Raj in important roles.

The film is set to release on July 12.