How Ranveer transformed into Kapil Dev
The box office performance of may be a bit underwhelming, but director Kabir Khan says Ranveer Singh followed his advice and came up with a great performance
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Kabir revealed that when he cast Ranveer in the film, he had told him that this was not a lookalike contest. “Everyone knows you are an actor and you are going to play the role of Kapil Dev,” he had pointed out. According to the director, what Ranveer got right was the expressions, and the way Kapil talks, and this had a greater impact than the looks.
“Everyone tells me they cannot see
Ranveer Singh in the film, they can only see Kapil Dev,” said
Kabir Khan. Kirti
Azad, who was part of the winning team, had also said this, the director shared.
“Everyone says
Kapil Dev’s bowling action is one of the toughest to emulate and Ranveer has managed to do that by sheer hard work.
We used to practice at
Bandra and he would come there daily for four hours for five months to get it right.
The best part was that we had the great
Kapil Dev himself come and train Ranveer and Kapil finally said ‘yes you are now bowling like me,’” he revealed. “It was not just about recreating history. People who are in their late 40s, 50 and 60s will definitely remember this moment and they will know so much about not just this final match but about other matches that India played. They will also be able to tell you what they were doing when India won the World Cup,” notes Kabir. “It is recent history, and so there is huge challenge and huge responsibility in recreating the iconic moment. People know what kind of clothes were worn, how someone’s batting stance was, how someone’s bowling action was. So a lot of attention was paid to detail. But more than all that, one has to also remember the wave of happiness that swept the country on June 25, 1983 — and the effort was to recreate that,” he says.
“EVERYONE SAYS KAPIL DEV’S BOWLING ACTION IS ONE OF THE TOUGHEST TO EMULATE AND RANVEER HAS MANAGED TO DO THAT BY SHEER HARD WORK. WE USED TO PRACTICE AT BANDRA DAILY FOR FOUR HOURS, FOR FIVE MONTHS TO GET IT RIGHT. KAPIL
DEV HIMSELF TRAINED RANVEER AND FINALLY
SAID ‘YES YOU ARE NOW BOWLING LIKE ME’”
— KABIR KHAN