Now, Tendulkar docu-feature coming to a theatre near you
New Delhi:
A docu-feature on Sachin Tendulkar titled “Sachin: A Billion Dreams,” is set to hit the silver screen on May 26.
The master blaster took to Twitter to make the announcement.
“The answer to the question that everyone’s asking me is here. Mark your calendars and save the date. @SachinTheFilm releases 26.05.17,” Tendulkar tweeted on Monday.
Tendulkar, since his retirement from cricket in 2013, has been in the public eye through his charity work and as co-owner of an Indian Super League soccer team. Now, his legion of fans will get an insight into his rise as an all-time great cricketer, who went on to break almost every batting record in his 24-year international career.
‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ will narrate the story of how a naughty, curly-haired boy in the Mumbai suburbs who climbed trees, pretended to be John McEnroe and once even pinned down and beat up a classmate took his cricketing genius to the highest level in the sport, and was hailed as an epitome of discipline in international sport.
According to sources, Tendulkar, an intensely private person, initially wasn’t keen when the idea for the project was floated by 200Notout Carnival Pictures Limited, about 18 months before his retirement. He eventually relented and allowed the crew to shoot his matches as well as private moments.
200Notout, an ad company behind successful campaigns for brands like Colgate, MRF, Maxx Mobile, Chevrolet, Lenovo and ICICI Bank, roped in the London-based James Erskine to direct the film.
Erskine, an award-winning writer, director and producer, in 2015, made the sports comedy, “A shooting for Socrates.” He also made a film on Italian cyclist, the late Marco Pantani, the former Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner renowned for his climbing skills.
The film on Tendulkar has been a challenging one, he said.
“Of course it is challenging to make a film on any sporting great… But Sachin is the greatest of them all. The challenge is not just to make a story about a man, it is to make a story about India itself, for which Sachin has been a spearhead for so many years. It is not just the story of a man, it is the story of an emotion… To capture that, bottle that and remake it on the big screen requires huge thought and care, not least when for so many Indians, Sachin is a part of them, Erskine told HT.
The docu-feature on Tendulkar follows commercial films on other high-profile Indian sports personalities, MS Dhoni, Mohd Azharuddin, Milkha Singh and MC Mary Kom.