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Breaking News: The captain of the Indian cricket team has been dropped.
A cup of tea falls on the floor. The cup breaks, the tea is spilt.
A man slumps into his couch in shock. That’s when his son asks him, “Papa, papa, if the tiger is our national animal then why do we harm it?”
The anguished father doesn’t respond. Lest you miss the metaphor, Sourav Ganguly appears in the next frame. When Ganguly looks at the camera, a tiger roars in the distance.
Ganguly then emerges onto an empty stadium, swinging his bat. A commentator notes, “This ground is too big for Mr Ganguly.” Moments later Dada agrees. “Maidan? There is no maidan bigger than my jigar (liver) .”
And as the drumbeats reach a crescendo, “ Is liye mujhe baap nahi , [leans forward for impact] Dada bolte hain . (And that’s why they don’t call me baap . They call me Dada.)”
That marks the end of the trailer of Ganguly – The Movie . It was uploaded on Youtube on May 7, 2012. And in the subsequent days it went viral.
The text under the trailer excitedly read: ‘ Ganguly -- The Movie ’ is a passionate love story! A love story starring Sourav Ganguly and YOU — the fan!” One such fan noted in the comment section of the video, “East or West DADA is the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!”
Most other comments asked for the release date of the film.
“When is this gonna get released?”
“Realese date plz”
“plz tell about the releasing date”
These questions went unanswered. Because this movie was not going to release, for it wasn’t a movie at all. It was an advertisement for Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company, a fact that was not revealed in the video.
A spokesperson for Apollo Munich later clarified that Ganguly was its brand ambassador. The trailer had been created for “internal training and motivation purposes” and was uploaded for the enjoyment of Dada fans.
The prospect of a big budget feature film in the offing was gone. Fans of Ganguly would have to wait.
And now, four years on, the time is ripe for a Ganguly biopic.
As Bollywood has both embraced and purchased sport — kabaddi, hockey, cricket and football, in particular — via the premier leagues, sport has entered the Bollywood consciousness.
This is the age where the two great stars of Indian entertainment have aligned. Sports has welcomed cinematic stars. Cinema has reciprocated with films about sports. Just where Harbhajan Singh dropped the baton for slapping during a cricket match, Shah Rukh Khan picked it up and resumed his grand tradition. Ganguly’s tryst with shirtlessness at Lord’s did not go unnoticed. Salman Khan adopted it as a creed.
Perhaps a more solid marker for this age is that Dhoni is now getting biopic of his own, MS Dhoni – the Untold Story . It features Sushant Singh Rajput and an unfortunate hairdo.
Sachin Tendulkar is getting one too — Sachin — featuring himself. It will be his cinematic debut at the tender age of 42.
Other sportspersons who are being similarly honoured:
Mary Kom, who has already earned herself a biopic, starring Priyanka Chopra. As has Milkha Singh, starring Farhan Akhtar in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag . Irrfan Khan has played Paan Singh Tomar. Shah Rukh Khan has played a hockey coach in Chak De India . His character was modelled to resemble Mir Ranjan Negi.
Aamir Khan will be playing wrestling champion, Mahavir Singh Phogat, in Dangal , releasing later this year. (Mahavir Singh Phogat is the father of wrestlers Babita Kumari and Geeta Phogat, who won silver and gold respectively at the Commonwealth Games in 2010.) Manoj Bajpayee is playing the coach to Budhia Singh, India’s youngest marathon runner, in Budhia Singh – Born to Run . That Deepika Padukone will soon play a badminton superstar is inevitable. Who she will play is the more pertinent question — PV Sindhu or Saina Nehwal.
And those are just the biopics.
Salman Khan is not one to play somebody else. So he played Olympic gold winning Salman Khan in Sultan . Madhavan played a disenchanted boxing coach in Saala Khadoos ( Irudhi Suttru in Tamil.) Akshay Kumar played a mix martial arts fighter in Brothers . So did Siddharth Malhotra. Kumar has also played a pace bowler of the English cricket team in Patiala House (2011).
You would have thought that Amol Palekar was more likely to ever feature in a sports film than Nawazuddin Siddiqui, but then you would have been wrong. Siddiqui will be in and as Freaky Ali , a star golfer. (Except the kind Sohail Khan would create. The kind who is a virgin because his mother said so.)
The long and short of this deluge of sports cinema is this — Dada must not be forgotten. He who never got a shot at a farewell speech at Eden Gardens, never a chance to redeem himself, deserves his day in the sun.
If Dhoni — who is neither a baap nor a Dada — deserves a biopic, then Ganguly does too.
Sneha Vakhariais a Delhi-based writer
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