Flying Sikhs collide in London for 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'

It was a starry evening in Southall, especially for the large Sikh community there, when Milkha Singh visited to meet Fauja Singh, the ‘World’s oldest Marathon Man’.

The meeting took place during the UK promotions of ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, a Bollywood film based on the life story of Milkha Singh.

Milkha Singh is a former Indian track and field sprinter and is the only Indian male athlete to win an individual athletics Gold in the Commonwealth Games. Milkha clocked 45.60 sec in the 1960 Summer Olympics 400m race to finish fourth beaten by Malcolm Spence of South Africa for bronze.

He won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m events at the 1958 Asian Games, clocking 21.6 seconds and 47 seconds respectively.

The Southall community joined them in full force to serenade sporting icon Milkha Singh who in fact inspired Fauja Singh to start his exciting Marathon career.

During the first ever international tete-a-tete between the two sporting legends, Milkha Singh and Fauja Singh were ecstatic to meet each other and Fauja Singh presented Milkha Singh with a special Sikhs in the City T-shirt as a memento.

Milkha Singh said ‘he feels  honoured with Rakesh Omprakash Mehra directing the biopic based on his life and struggle and hence has decided to accompany him on this journey in the global promotions of the film’. 

The soon to-be released, ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ which reveals the hardships and life story of the 77 year old, featuring Farhan Akhtar as Milkha Singh, is already creating a huge buzz with its hit music, trailers and international star cast.

Bafta nominated film director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ releases worldwide on July 12, 2013.

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