Now, movie on 1983 World Cup win

Hyderabad: After biopics on Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, it’s time to showcase on silver screen India’s 1983 World Cup victory that spurred the growth of the game in the now cricket-mad country. Phantom Films have set the ball rolling by roping in Kabir Khan as the director who is currently conducting script sessions in full swing.

Hyderabad’s P. R. Man Singh, who was the manager of that all-conquering Kapil Dev-led team, has had a session with Kabir in Mumbai recently to build the storyline.

“Kabir wants to show that cricket is what it is today because of that victory. The media, public and commercial interests attached to the game now can be traced back to that memorable 25th day of June, 1983,” the veteran told this newspaper on Friday.

“The (1983 World Cup) matches have been well covered in the press. The movie plans to reflect the several things off the field that were a part of our eventful journey. Kabir had already spoken/ interviewed most of the players in this regard,” Man Singh said.

Among the many things cricket treasure trove Man Singh revealed to Kabir was “holding the team meeting in the bus; meeting the British Queen; hosting a thanksgiving party; how we smuggled some of our friends into Lord’s (cricket ground, venue of the final) because we didn’t have enough tickets; how I bent the Board’s contract to allow the players’ wives to stay in the same hotel and travel on the team bus and that (the legendary) Sunil Gavaskar’s name did not figure in the first 10 members who were selected.”

By Man Singh’s estimate, the film should hit the theaters next year. “They were expected to go to England this summer for a bit of a shooting out there but the script wasn’t ready and Kabir Khan was busy with some of his blockbusters. His next movie Tubelight is to be released next month or so, after which he will get the script done and take this one up I feel,” Man Singh said.

Kabir is going into minute details for sure. “He was asking me how slim or fat I was and how much hair I had on my head,” he laughs. “The meeting went non-stop for four hours and I told him a lot of things. He’s not going to sort of blend them all into a good script,” the cricket official said.

Will anyone from the team get to act in the film? “No... because we are 34 years older than what we were,” Man Singh is in splits before slipping “they are going to pick substitutes for this one.”