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Years Before ’83’, Did You Know Anurag Kashyap Was Making A Biopic On Kapil Dev’s Life?
After almost 21 months of delay, filmmaker Kabir Khan’s upcoming directorial 83 starring Ranveer Singh will release during this Christmas weekend. Made on Indian Cricket Team’s historic World Cup win in 1983, the movie will feature Ranveer Singh in the role of former captain Kapil Dev.
The trailer of the film released on November 30 and is receiving a lot of love from fans and movie buffs. While the trailer has been garnering a positive response, not many know that this isn’t the first time a movie has been attempted on Kapil Dev’s life.
Did you know two decades back, a biopic titled Kapil Dev – The True Story was announced on the life of legendary Indian cricketer? Back in 2001, after the match-fixing controversy, Kapil Dev had announced in the media about an eight-part TV series and a two-and-a-half-hour movie to be a made on his life.
He had revealed in a press conference that his biopic is being penned by Anurag Kashyap who had made a name for himself then for being the writer of Satya and Shool. When asked about why he decided to do this film, according to Rediff, Kapil had stated, “My friends, Anurag Kashyap of Shool and Satya fame, and Shailendra (producer) have been discussing this idea with me for over a month and, finally, we decided that we should go ahead and tell everything in this film.”
Talking further about the proposed budget of the biopic and who will play the lead role, Kapil had said, “The cost of the film will be around Rs 4-5 crore and it would be ready by October 2002. The film will be available both in film as well as mega serial forms. As far as the villain is concerned, I don’t have to say much on this. There are films which are without a villain as well. As far as the role of Kapil Dev is concerned, I would not let anyone do it, except the dancing sequences which would be done by someone else.”
On being asked about the name of the director who will be helming the film, Kapil had responded, “We are talking to a number of top directors of the film industry. No name has been finalised as yet. The moment we finalise a name we will get back to you.”
Anurag Kashyap, who was also present with Kapil Dev in the press conference, had said that he believes in Kapil Dev completely. “The main content will be – against all odds, this man, Kapil Dev, has risen to the heights that he has. The really difficult part is going to be when we come to casting. I am planning the script as a docu-drama,” Anurag had added.
The movie/series was eventually shelved for reasons unknown. And decades later Anurag Kashyap’s former production house Phantom Films is now one of the producers of 83.
Besides Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, the movie also stars Deepika Padukone as Kapil Dev’s wife, Romi Bhatia. Tahir Raj Bhasin plays Sunil Gavaskar, Saqib Saleem plays Mohinder Amarnath, Jiiva plays Krishnamachari Srikanth, Ammy Virk as Balwinder Sandhu and Harrdy Sandhu as Madan Lal. 83 is slated to release on December 24.