Varun Dhawan and Ranbir Kapoor
Varun Dhawan has reportedly replaced Ranbir Kapoor in Varinder Chawla

Bollywood has started a new trend of making films based on sportspersons' lives. The recent buzz is that "Ek Thi Daayan" director Kannan Iyer will helm a sports-drama based on the Olympian shooter Abhinav Bindra's life and it may star either Varun Dhawan or Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role.

"The cast is in place except the central character. For Bindra's role, Iyer has zeroed in on two actors — Ranbir Kapoor and Varun Dhawan — who have the right build, age and spirit to portray Bindra from age 17 to his present age (33)," a source told DNA.

It is said that both the actors have shown their interest in the project, thus, the makers will finalise the one according to the availability of dates of the actors. Varun was earlier in news for doing a biopic on Dhyan Chand and Ranbir has been roped in to do a biopic on Sanjay Dutt.

"Both are busy stars. And this film requires a long stretch of uninterrupted dates from the actors. Right now, the front-runner is Ranbir as he shares the same birth date as Abhinav Bindra. However, his dates are committed to another biopic (Sanjay Dutt's) to be directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Both, Ranbir and Varun stand an equally good chance of playing Bindra. Also, Varun has not done any biopics (but is in talks for playing Dhyan Chand), so it would be interesting to see if he picks up the Bindra biopic first," the source further said.

The audience will be treated with many biopics soon, for instance, Aamir Khan's "Dangal," based on the life of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, and Sushant Singh Rajput's "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story" on cricketer Dhoni. The news of a biopic on Saina Nehwal was doing the rounds as well and it may feature Deepika Padukone and then, there's a biopic on Dhyan Chand's life.

It had also been reported that Varun has replaced Ranbir in the "Dream Team" concert as the latter was initially supposed to be a part of the programme. While it was said earlier that Ranbir had backed out of the big event as his former girlfriend Katrina Kaif too would be performing on the stage, the latest buzz said that organisers of the event have decided to replace Ranbir with Varun, considering the former's unsuccessful streak of movies. Ranbir's last movies "Tamasha," "Roy," and "Bombay Velvet" bombed at the box office.