Abhinay Deo’s next is a socio-sports film
Movies made on sports personalities or sporting events have been many, but filmmaker Abhinay Deo (known for Delhi Belly and Blackmail) is tapping into something new — his next project is a socio-sports film, based on the transformation of India’s national psyche. The film captures the cultural change in the country through all aspects of society — sport (cricket, to be precise), the arts, business, and politics.
Unlike Bollywood’s earlier takes on cricket, which have either been biopics (MS Dhoni: An Untold Story, Sachin: A Billion Dreams, and Azhar) or a fictional period drama (Lagaan), this film is about modern India as seen through the eyes of an ordinary Indian. It’s a blend of archival documentary material and a fictionalised narrative. Using historical footage, the film reveals an untold story of India through cricket.
Abhinay, who has described himself as someone who loves to experiment, says, “It’s a different decision to do a film that’s a docu-fiction. It is something between a documentary and a feature film. It is an experiment from our side to see whether we can combine these two worlds. This is a subject matter that’s very important for everyone in the country. Cricket is almost another religion in our country; and ever since we got independence, it’s one of the factors that unites us.”
The plot weaves together two stories of courage — one, a public story played out by a cricket captain under the harsh glare of the national spotlight; the other, a deeply private story of an ordinary man, questioning the severely defined social structure in a small town in north India.
While he has been working on this project for nearly eight months now, Abhinay says that the subject came from someone else. “The idea came from this couple — Rohan and Masha Sajdeh, who live in Chicago and are of Indian origin. It’s their brainchild. Rohan played cricket in Australia at the county level and they came up with this idea, put it together in the form of a presentation, and then contacted me. The minute I heard it, I was really
interested,” says Abhinay.
This is something between a documentary and a feature film. It is an experiment to see whether we can combine these two worlds. ABHINAY DEO FILMMAKER