Kabir Khan recently wrapped up his film ‘83, which follows how under newly-appointed captain Kapil Dev, the Indian cricket team defeated West Indies in the final and won the country’s first World Cup in 1983. It tracks the coming-of-age of not just a cricketing team but of a young nation in the eyes of the world. Kabir recently told Mumbai Mirror about filming the iconic ‘win’ moment.
He said, “We shot for five days at the Lord’s stadium in London, entering the members-only Long Room where no camera had ventured before, the dressing rooms and locker rooms, then, stepped out on the balcony where the World Cup was presented to Kapil sir. And guess what? They brought out the real World Cup for Ranveer too. Overwhelmed, he broke down when I shouted ‘Cut’.”
He also mentioned how he wanted to just embody the spirit of Kapil Dev and not create a ‘lookalike’ of him with Ranveer. He said it would have been easy with prosthetics and VFX to do that, but it was about Ranveer looking convincing as a cricketer. Kabir added, “In the last few films, Ranveer’s lived his roles. It’s a rare gift he has, along with the effort he puts in. Even in our film, after 10 minutes you’ll forget it’s Ranveer on screen.”
Deepika Padukone plays Kapil Dev’s wife Romi in the film and is also co-producing the film. When quizzed if Deepika was an obvious choice as Ranveer’s ‘reel’ life partner, Kabir said that Deepika was a brilliant performer and ‘embodies’ Romi’s energy perfectly.
Ranveer and the rest of the cast went throug a gruelling training process in preparation for their roles. They have even trained under former cricketer Mohinder Amarnath Bhardwaj and taken tips on the field from Kapil himself.
‘83 also stars Hardy Sandhu, Chirag Patil, Saqib Saleem, Pankaj Tripathi, Tahir Bhasin, Ammy Virk and Saahil Khattar. The film releases on 10 April 2020.
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