Malavath Poorna: Surreal to have a movie made on me

Malavath Poorna, world's youngest woman to scale Mount Everest, on inspiring Rahul Bose-directed film

Rahul Bose, Malavath Poorna and Aditi Inamdar at the film’s trailer launch. Pic/PTI

While several filmmakers have captured the lives of popular personalities on screen, Rahul Bose's directorial venture, Poorna, has an unconventional appeal. The film is about Malavath Poorna, 13, the youngest to scale Mount Everest (played by Aditi Inamdar in the film).

On Thursday, Rahul unveiled the film's trailer along with Poorna, who couldn't contain her happiness. Talking to mid-day, she said, "It feels surreal to have a movie on my life. I am grateful to Rahul sir."

Poorna admits scaling the world's highest mountain was no mean feat and she underwent rigorous training for it. "We trained for almost a year. From rock climbing lessons to scaling the 17,000- ft Mount Renock in the Kanchenjunga range, I had to put my fitness levels to test," she says.

Recalling a haunting experience while climbing Everest, Poorna says, "In the last leg, I saw six dead bodies. The sight was disturbing. I was scared and asked a co-climber why the bodies were abandoned. He said it was difficult to carry them back to base. I distracted myself by remembering my parents, friends and trainer."

Bose is glad he chose an unsung hero for the film. "When I first got the script, I felt ashamed that I hadn't heard about Poorna earlier. We talk about PV Sindhu, Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal, but no one knows about this incredible story."

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