Play acting

Directors are daring to go off the beaten track because a cricket-obsessed nation is fast learning the rules of Formula One and adventure sports8212;from the comfort of the living room, of course. The result: a refreshing emphasis on research and authenticity. For his next venture Goal, director Vivek Agnihotri has managed a coup of sorts by roping in English Premier League footballer Andy Ansah to train actors John Abraham, Arshad Warsi and Bipasha Basu. Ansah, a veteran British footballer, who has choreographed the likes of Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for commercials, agreed to do the movie after he saw a brief on Agnihotri8217;s website. Intensive training camps started in December last year. The film, which features 12 football matches, is being shot entirely in locales in London, including the Manchester United stadium, in a five-month start-to-finish schedule. In some scenes, the actors have had to dribble in sub-zero temperatures.

In Raaste, to be produced by Suniel Shetty and Ekta Kapoor, too, the director wants every frame to look real. 8220;People now follow racing and any goof-up can be immediately spotted,8221; he says. The story revolves around Baja 1000, an off-road race that takes place in Mexico8217;s Baja California Peninsula every year. From motorcycles and cars to buggies and trucks, the race is open to all vehicles. All the actors will have a month-long training before shooting starts. Steve Kelso, another sports choreographer, who recently helped Saif Ali Khan train for Tara Rum Pum , will conduct the sessions.

If content is getting ambitious, technology has to catch up. Recorded footage of cricket or football matches won8217;t do for this new breed. Singh has hired one of Hollywood8217;s ace aerial photographers, Ivor Shier of Babe and Collateral fame, to shoot the race sequences. Around 16-17 cameras will be used to capture a single sequence.

And what of the stories? The best sports tales have always been about the triumph of the underdog8212;from Rocky Balboa to India8217;s win at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. So, in Raaste, three outsiders fight Mexico8217;s scorching heat and their personal demons as they compete in a race. Tracking their three stories is a sports psychologist, played by Aishwarya Rai. Says the director, 8220;I wanted to focus on individual sports, where each contestant has his own territory to defend. In Raaste, I explore three separate tracks with the three actors. The unifying factor is that they are all Indians, trying to live out their dream on the dirt tracks of Mexico and they are all underdogs,8221; says Singh. Again, Shah Rukh Khan in Chak De India plays a hockey player who returns to the game after seven years to coach an Indian women8217;s hockey team.

In Marathon, Nisha Chainani brings out the power of sport to redeem broken lives. Her film tells the story of five characters, who run the Mumbai marathon for personal reasons. Mandira Bedi plays a housewife whose marriage is breaking under the strain of her husband8217;s extra-marital affair. She takes up the marathon as a personal challenge. Vikram Saluja plays an obese business tycoon, who has to get in shape and run to prove a point. 8220;It8217;s loosely based on Anil Ambani8217;s life. Then there8217;s the story of a college student trying to prove his love for his girlfriend and a former football player with an amputated leg. None of them is larger than life,8221; explains Vicky Tejwani of Matrix Media, that is producing the film.

When the underdog takes centrestage, it8217;s not surprising that the superstar of Indian sports8212;cricket8212;has to wait in the pavilion. Most of these movies have deliberately given cricket a miss. India8217;s dismal performance at the World Cup has also pushed back the release date of Pritish Nandy Communication8217;s Meerabai Not Out, from March to June. Former Indian spinner Anil Kumble has been roped in for a cameo in the film. 8220;He was quite a revelation in front of the camera because he didn8217;t require any retakes. And with a voice like that, he is every dubbing artist8217;s dream,8221; says director Chandrakant Kulkarni.

Even niche film festivals are joining in. Ritesh Sinha, a Mumbai-based filmmaker and owner of Ten Films, a production house, tied up with Italy8217;s Federation Internationale Cinema Television Sportifs FICTS for India8217;s first festival of sports films in 2006. Mumbai-based actor and former volleyball player Harsh Vashisth8217;s 20-minute film, Learning to Fly8212;on a group of bored urban kids discovering the thrill of volleyball8212; was screened at this year8217;s FICTS festival in Milan. The big question: is the audience game?