MUMBAI: With all eyes trained on next week‘s release of yet another sports oriented film the debate hots up. Have sports films done well in India or is Chak De an aberration? Film lovers, trade analysts, filmmakers, et al are analyzing this trend almost as if they have discovered a new sport.
People are going ballistic about the arrival of Vivek Agnihotri‘s Goal or is it Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal? Whatever…it is a film about football shot in UK. The producers of Goal UTV Motion Pictures claim to have recovered their cost of production even before the release of the film. But don‘t all producers recover their money prior to a film‘s release? What is important to observe is how the film fares with the audiences. A film is made for theatres and hence the litmus test is the theatrical release.
India has always been a nation of sports lovers. Cricket is an anthem for most Indians and now we have discovered hockey and may be football in the coming week. Chak De revived interest in hockey and the film‘s title song has become a sort of anthem cheering Indian teams to victory in various sporting events. A sport which had greats like Dhyan Chand to Dhanraj Pillai. And almost all of them have a story waiting to be told. But unfortunately it took a Shahrukh to leverage this forgotten sport.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says that not many filmmakers have attempted to make sports films. “Producers always felt that sports based films never did well at the box office. This is a myth. Everything boils down to content. I think that filmmakers should attempt to make such films.”
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Hip Hip Hurray (a film on football made almost twenty years ago), Iqbal, Lagaan, Tara rum pum were all sport-centred films. With the exception of Lagaan and to a small extent Iqbal none of them made it big at the box office. But the Chak De of yesteryears was the 1956 classic Naya Daur. The film was a hit when it was released five decades ago and even now when it was recently released in its new coloured avatar.
So what is it there to be so gung-ho about now? Goal may have more to it than football. But it is being promoted as a sports film to cash in on the current rage for such films. The kind of money that has been pumped in to generate viewer interest could be used to make a Bheja Fry.
Taran Adarsh is optimistic and believes the film will do well. “Sports and films do go together. Today audiences want to listen to good stories. It could be sports based themes. As long as you have a good story the film will do well.”
So for the meanwhile the juggernaut rolls on with more such films to hit the screens. The soon to release Raaste, Mazhab, Cycle Kick may score a goal.
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