The career of legendary Indian cricketer comes to the big screen this weekend with the release of the Sachin Tendulkar biopic Sachin: A Billion Dreams — in five languages (Hindi, Marathi, English, Tegulu and Tamil),
Tendulkar will need little introduction to cricket fans, particularly those from India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, he appeared for India in six world cups, captaining them for two tenures, and finally winning in 2011.
He was the only Indian cricketer to appear in Wisden’s all-time World Test 11, to mark the 150th anniversary of the cricketing almanac in 2013, and became the only cricketer to appear in 200 test matches and score 100 test centuries.
Now retired, Tendulkar is about to try his hand at something completely different, adding movie star to a CV that already has him listed as cricketer, national hero, sometime politician, and philanthropist.
Tendulkar insists the move from field to film wasn’t a difficult one. “We didn’t really have to write anything because I had a 24-year career there I could just reminisce over,” he says.
“There were highs and lows and each one had something to contribute to my career, it was so great just to talk about that and remember all those things. Whatever came naturally I just spoke about it, we wanted the recording to be captured exactly as it was, real life.
“If I scored 35 runs we can’t change that and say I scored 135 runs, everyone knows that, but nobody knows what was going on in my mind at that time, so we’ve tried to capture that. To capture how it was for me and my family spending so much time apart, those type of things.”
To this end, the movie’s producers went through a massive 10,000 hours of archive footage of Tendulkar’s career, eventually cutting the movie down to a 138-minute celebration of Tendulkar’s career, which the cricketer himself narrates and reminisces over.
“It’s a real life story, there’s no actors or writing, just Sachin narrating his real life story, no fiction,” explains producer Ravi Bhagchandka. “We’ve captured all that archive footage to build a big canvas and let Sachin take us on a journey with him. It’s not like a traditional biopic done with actors.”
Intriguingly, the movie's Indian producers chose a British director — accomplished sports documentarian James Erskine (Accidental Death of a Cyclist, Le Mans: Racing is Everything) to helm the movie.
The decision, according to Bhagchandka, was a conscious one. “There’s a lot of talent in India, Bollywood directors who are very successful, but we wanted someone who knows cricket, who’s done sports biopics, but hasn’t grown up with the aura that is Sachin in India,” he explains. “Even if you’ve grown up not particularly a fan of cricket in India, you can’t help being around Sachin and I thought that could be intimidating for an Indian director. We wanted to get to the human story, and I thought an outsider’s take would be more interesting than someone who’s lived in India with all that entails.”
The same thought process seems to have gone into the decision to release the movie simultaneously in five languages — three narrated by Tendulkar, and two dubbed — to appeal to as wide a cross section of both the movie and cricket audiences alike.
“India is a diversified nation and Sachin’s one factor that has managed to unite that country together. We’ve made it in three master languages which Sachin has narrated — Hindi, Marathi and English — and also dubbed into Tamil and Telugu, as we don’t speak them. We want to reach out to as many people as we can,” Bhagchandka says.
Tendulkar’s cricket career was nothing short of phenomenal, but I wonder, having just sat through thousands of archived hours of his own life, whether he could pick one standout moment from his 24 years at the crease?
“That one moment, without doubt has to be the 2011 World Cup,” he says without hesitation. “My dream was always to play for India at the World Cup, but once I’d achieved that, the second journey started then — to win the World Cup. It took me 22 years and six world cups to do that. Not just me, but the various teams — one in the dressing room, one at home, and the billion-plus people back home. That moment would definitely be my pick. It was the biggest team in the world, and that’s got to be the highlight for me.”
And finally — any moments of regret following such an in-depth look back over his career? “I always think I could score more runs. A batsman is never happy. Why didn’t I play that shot? Why did I play that shot,” he laughs. “At the beginning of my career in 1989, though, if someone said ‘we’ll give you 24 years of career, would you take it? 10 out of 10 times. I can’t really complain, can I?”
Sachin: A Billion Dreams is on general release this weekend. Check cinema listings for details.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
