‘I’M TOO OLD TO DO A CRICKET FILM’
Adie-hard fan of cricket, he has even played the game at a national level being a part of Mumbai’s U 16 team. But as fate would have it, he couldn’t pursue it further and became an actor. Though his dream to play for the country fell through, Shetty always wished to live his dream on the celluloid by acting in a cricket film.
“As an actor, I always aspired and hoped to be a part of a cricket film where I could showcase my skills and at the same time, play the role of a cricketer on screen,” he continues, “I remember I used to skip a heartbeat every time [Team] India played. My emotions were the emotions of the cricketers who were playing there on the field.”
Now, with a film being made on the iconic victory of India’s first ever Cricket World Cup in 1983, Shetty feels sad that his age didn’t permit him to be a part of it.
“I’m so upset I’ve grown so old that now I can’t be a part of such a big cricket film like (director) Kabir Khan’s ’83. I feel I’m too old to be a part of a cricket film, otherwise I would have loved to do even a small role in the film and play any cricketer on screen,” says the 57-year-old, who was seen in the recent Kannada film Pailwaan.
During his younger days, all that Shetty cared was “to play cricket and make a career out of it”. On why things didn’t work out, he recalls, “Though the sport was big, it wasn’t considered to be a good career prospect at that time. It was a very narrow route; if you didn’t make it, you couldn’t make it. Now we have cricket at club levels; there’s IPL (Indian Premier League) and much more. I played till Under 16 and was pretty good at it. But, there was too much competition in the city. Being an outsider, coming from my home town in Mangalore to Mumbai, it was very difficult.”
Shetty shares that he soon felt the pressure to work and earn a living while continuing his college. “Also, somewhere down the line, I realised that maybe I’m not good enough [for cricket]. So, it’s the natural exit that you take. But cricket remains my first love,” he gushes.
It was during that phase when “acting happened by chance” and the actor couldn’t pursue cricket professionally. “I never planned [acting in] movies. It was much later in my life that I got the opportunity and I took it,” he says.
Keeping his passion for the sport alive, the actor now plays cricket in celebrity leagues besides “supporting various social causes and unite cricket lovers from the [film] industry”.
I’m so upset that I’ve grown so old now that I can’t be a part of such a big cricket film like ‘83... I’d have loved to do even a small role in the film and play any cricketer on the big screen.
SUNIEL SHETTY ACTOR