Advertisement

Cricket seems to be returning in the mindspace of Bollywood filmmakers, with a few high-profile projects lined up for release next year.

In 2020, Ranveer Singh plays Kapil Dev in “’83“, Kabir Khan’s film about India’s historic victory at the cricket World Cup of 1983. Shahid Kapoor, after “Kabir Singh“, seems to have struck gold with remakes of Telugu hits. His next, “Jersey” is a Bollywood remake of Gowtham Tinnanuri’s Telugu film of the same name, and it narrates the story of a failed cricketer who decides to revive his career against all odds despite being in his late thirties. Then there is the Mithali Raj biopic, which stars Taapsee Pannu as the protagonist. A film titled “God Of Cricket” has also been announced on cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday this year.

Sure, Bollywood has always been fascinated by cricket, which remains a religion in India. In the past, we have had “Lagaan”, “Iqbal”, “Patiala House”, “Dil Bole Hadippa”, “Jannat”, “Chain Kulii Ki Main Kulii”, “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story”, “Azhar” and “The Zoya Factor” among others. In the nineties, too, there was the odd attempt to cash in on the sport with Aamir Khan starring as a cricketing star in Dev Anand’s “Awwal Number”.

Advertisement

From Ranveer Singh’s ’83 To Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, Cricket Movies That Will Hit The Ball Out Of The Stadium In 2020

Still earlier, in the eighties, real-life cricketer Sandeep Patil (incidentally, among the heroes of the 1983 team that won World Cup) starred as a reel-life cricketer in a film called “Kabhi Ajnabi The” (1985) . Also, Kumar Gaurav — a teenybopper star of the era– played a cricketer in “All Rounder” (1984).

There is a difference between the upcoming stock of cricket movies and the older ones. In most cases, Bollywood films of the past that had cricket as a backdrop were only using the sport to unfold a formulaic story of romance, drama, melodrama, comedy and, at times, some action. Barring the odd “Iqbal” or biopics of Dhoni and Azhar, these films were not so much about cricket or cricketers.

The upcoming films on cricket and cricketers will also look for formula in the stories of cricket and cricketers, but in keeping with contemporary Bollywood trends, aim at doing so with a context that makes the game relevant to the plot.

That’s something that excites the audience these days. A quick scan of the welcome that the Mithali Raj biopic is seeing on social media ever since it was announced a while back tells you as much.