It’s hard to imitate a hero and if you are imitating the great Kapil Dev, you have to pull all the stocks in the market. Ranveer Singh, playing Kapil’s role in the movie ‘83’, experienced it was easier said than done to portray the character. Sachin Tendulkar, Hardik Pandya both advised Ranveer that playing Kapil’s role won’t be easy.
"It was the bowling action (difficult to mimic). For 7 months, I was bowling 4 hours a day. For a number of weeks, I was not able to make any headway.
"He has this unique bio-mechanics. He can only bowl the way he bowls. You name it, Sachin Tendulkar, Hardik Pandya... whoever I met is telling me 'How are you going to do the action?, “ Ranveer said in a special program with India Today in Mumbai as the stars gathered for the premier show.
"We were at Lord's, It rained out, Kabir sir and myself met Sachin Tendulkar. He told me 'Yeah, you are playing the 83 film, you are playing Kapil Dev, too good. You are going to bowl like him. Oh... accha'.
"I was being given a heads up from everybody that this is not going to be easy. And it wasn't for many months,” 36-year-old Ranveer said.
The stars in the movie had to go through routine training while they portrayed the roles of the players. Sahil Khattar needed to take special training while featuring as a wicketkeeper, portraying the role of Syed Kirmani. Dhairya Karwa also needed to change his natural action as he was asked to bowl left-arm spin, despite being right-handed.
The movie dedicated to the 1983 World Cup-winning squad is all set to hit the box office on Christmas Eve (December 24). The Kabir Khan-directed film contains a string of stars including Deepika Padukone, who is playing the role of Kapil’s wife. Pankaj Tripathi, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Chirag Patil, Adinath Kothare and many others are part of the cast.
