Srikkanth had to cancel US holiday after India started winning: 83 director Kabir Khan reveals interesting stories he uncovered while making film

Filmmaker Kabir Khan, whose upcoming sports drama ‘83 has been indefinitely postponed because of the coronavirus lockdown, has said that it took him over a year to write the film, which will be told from multiple perspectives.

“I had 100 fantastic stories and I could pick only 25 from the mountain of material I had with me. That’s the reason it took me close to a year-and-a-half to finalise the script,” he told Mumbai Mirror. “The film is not just from the players’ point of view, but also that of the commentators and the spectators. There are several layers.”

83, based on Team India’s underdog victory at the 1983 cricket World Cup, stars Ranveer Singh as captain Kapil Dev, along with an ensemble cast that includes Deepika Padukone, Harrdy Sandhu, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jivaa, Saqib Saleem, Pankaj Tripathi, among others.

Giving one example of the sort of stories he unearthed, the filmmaker said that Krishnamachari Srikkanth had tied the knot just three months before the World Cup. Convinced that the team wouldn’t make it past the group stage of the tournament, he’d booked tickets for a US holiday, along with six other players.

Kabir said, “Srikkanth, along with six other players, was all set to fly out as soon as the group stage ended, confident that India would be knocked out of contention soon. All seven had booked their tickets from Mumbai to New York via London. In Srikkanth’s words, ‘We will play the World Cup on the way to a holiday in the US.’ Nobody, including the team, believed that we had a chance of making it to the semis, let alone the finals and lift the trophy.”

Also read: Ranveer Singh’s 83 heading straight to OTT due to lockdown? Reliance Entertainment clears rumours

Recently, it was reported that the film could be released directly on a streaming service, but this report was dismissed by Reliance Entertainment Group CEO Shibashish Sarkar, who said that the makers are not looking in that direction for another six months at least. “There is no truth in this. As producers and even the director we all are on the same page that we want to wait for theatrical release for next few months. We will first complete the film then we will wait. If six or nine months down the line the situation becomes much worse we will take a call at that time. There is no hurry,” he told PTI.

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