Mukesh Bhatt to make film on Bob Woolmer

MUMBAI: How did a famous cricket coach die after his team was knocked out of the World Cup?

That is the plot of a new Bollywood thriller prompted by the controversy that surrounded the death of Bob Woolmer, the South African cricket coach of the Pakistani team during the recent World Cup.

Well-known Indian producer Mukesh Bhatt told The Indian Express newspaper the movie will be titled "Jannat" or "Heaven" and filming begins in London, Yorkshire and Liverpool next month.

"Jannat is based on Woolmer's death but we won't make any direct references," Bhatt said in the interview published Thursday. "It isn't a documentary".

Bhatt said newcomer Emraan Hashmi would play a match-fixer, but did not say who would play the coach's part.

He said filming would be completed in October and the movie would release early next year.

Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 18, a day after Pakistan's first-round defeat by rank outsiders Ireland. His death triggered a homicide investigation after initial suspicions that he had been strangled.

This set off media speculation that Woolmer had been targeted by bookies unhappy he was allegedly writing a book on match-fixing. Earlier this month the Jamaican police announced Woolmer died of heart failure, ending a high-profile investigation.