Iranian-born tennis legend Mansour Bahrami is getting a movie biopic and it can’t come out soon enough! As a professional tennis player Bahrami was only moderately successful on the main ATP tour, but his showmanship made him a popular figure in invitational tournaments; case in point, the highlight reel below of his greatest trick shots.
Bahrami, who holds dual Iranian and French nationalities, spoke to Screen Rant about the upcoming movie and selling the rights to his 2009 autobiography, “The Court Jester: My Story,” to Unconditional Pictures.
“It’s going to focus on my life in general – how I started in tennis and my life as a tennis player – it’s very unique. With the war in Iran, the Islamic Revolution, the difficulty I had to play tennis, it’s because of that that they want to make a movie.”
https://youtu.be/wPJJOST6hro
The film will focus on various aspects of his earlier life, including how he learnt to play tennis using the end of a broom as a racket, to fleeing to France from Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is worth noting that during the Islamic Revolution Bahrami was prohibited from playing tennis; the sport was considered both a capitalist and elitist activity.
Once Bahrami fled to France he lost all of his savings on risky activities such as gambling, but he was also able to re-connect with his passion for tennis and trained his way up to playing professionally within the doubles competition field. Bahrami achieved success playing doubles, with the pinnacle coming at the 1989 French Open where he made the finals with his tennis partner Eric Winogradsky. (They would go on to lose the match to Patrick McEnroe and Jim Grabb in four sets.)
Unconditional Pictures shared a bit about why they wanted to make this film: “Due to Mansour’s rare combination of sporting skill and irresistible humour, this story has comedy at its core – and his is also a very dramatic, eventful and inspiring life.”
Bahrami will be working as technical advisor on the movie, but with no director or lead actor selected it might be a while before it moves out of development and into pre-production.
Always the showman and never one to sit still, Bahrami recently played a doubles match at Wimbledon (2017), treating tennis fans with an unbelievable 61 shot rally!
