IT’S RAINING SPORTS IN BOLLYWOOD
Along with cricket, the Hindi film industry is now weaving tales of sportspersons who’ve excelled in other games, too
While inspirational narratives revolving around cricket have been a constant in the Hindi film industry, it seems that the transition towards other sports is gaining momentum, too — from Parineeti Chopra sweating it out to play ace badminton star Saina Nehwal in Saina and Ajay Devgn as football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in Maidaan to Taapsee Pannu as a sprinter in Rashmi Rocket and cricketer Mithali Raj in Shabaash Mithu. While some are biopics, and are loosely inspired from real stories and events, others are thinly-veiled around fiction.
Calling it an exciting time for actors and filmmakers to experiment with other sports-based films, actor Taapsee Pannu says, “Sports stars are the real heroes who have faced all odds to pursue the sport, made it big by representing the country internationally and winning laurels. I see them as great stories to be shown on screen. Though it’s a great opportunity, the stakes are really high as we haven’t seen films on a female cricketer or spinster before. So, to be a part of such a project adds up to the responsibility and requires intense physical training.”
For director Amit Sharma — who captures the journey of the late football coach Syed Adbul Rahim in his next film Maidaan — more than the sport, it’s the story that caught hold of his attention. “For me, sports is secondary. It’s the story of a football coach and the golden era of Indian football. That inspired me a lot. He was the best coach we ever had in our country. Unlike cricket, football isn’t very popular in India. So, this is more difficult, yet, interesting to work on and tell people what the unsung heroes did for the country in the field of sports,” Sharma says.
Director Nitesh Tiwari, who made Dangal (2016), which was loosely based on wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his daughters, international wrestling champions — Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari, feels that sports-based films give an opportunity to execute filmmaking in a different way.
“There are so many real-life heroes from our country who need to be celebrated. Their inspiring stories are motivating filmmakers to make biopics. The biggest challenge is how to break the mould of the same old conventional form of storytelling and show the emotional graph, the ups and downs, and how you portray their journey in a nutshell,” Tiwari says.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh feels that sports dramas other than those on cricket, which were backed by big actors and great storytelling, have done well at the box office in the past. “Everyone enjoys watching sports weaved around convincing storytelling and drama to keep the audience hooked on for the next two-and-a-half hours. We’ve had Shah Rukh Khan in Chak De! India (2007), Salman Khan in Sultan (2016), Aamir Khan in Dangal, Akshay Kumar in Gold (2018) and it’s only growing big with many other actors such as Farhan Akhtar, Ajay Devgn, Parineeti Chopra and Taapsee Pannu, endorsing it,” he says.