Imagine Bajirao Singham being the coach of the Indian football team. It is bizarre and that’s precisely the image crisis filmmaker Amit Ravindernath Sharma had in his head when it came to Ajay Devgn headlining the upcoming sports drama Maidaan. The film is a biopic based on the life of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim.
Rahim was the coach of the Indian football team between 1952 and 1962, often called as the golden era of the sport for India. The film by Sharma, his follow up after the National Award-winning comedy Badhaai Ho, will show Syed’s “emotional” journey and the filmmaker said no one but Devgn could’ve done the part.
“I had never worked with him before, so I had my own doubts. You build an image in your mind of an actor and his image in my mind was of Singham. But he broke that. He would keep the stardom of Ajay Devgn outside the set. Once in, he would be Syed. His performance in the film is incredible. I’m not saying because it’s my film, but viewers will realise once they watch it,” he told Indianexpress.com.
The filmmaker recalled meeting Ajay Devgn for a narration when the actor had asked him, ‘Who is Syed for you?’ Then when Amit Ravindernath Sharma started narrating his vision of the character to Devgn, he saw something shift.
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“When we started having conversations about him, I remember at one point he was standing like the way Ajay Devgn does, with swagger, and by the end of it, he was standing like Syed. Simple, slightly bent. There was no Singham, only Syed. I told him he would be wearing loose pants because you’re a coach and you won’t think what you’re wearing. Back then the clothes were also different— pleated pants, trousers, loose shirts. An actor would usually think about how he’s looking, check in the mirror if the clothes are of fitting or not.
“But not Ajay, he never once asked about his physical experience. He was completely on board my ideas and vision of the character. In one of the meetings I told him there were too many dialogues of him and I would chop them out because Syed would talk less. He said, ‘Please go ahead, we are on the same page.'”
Backed by Boney Kapoor, Maidaan went on floors in 2019 and then faced the pandemic and a cyclone, finding itself later in a back door tussle involving network rights which led to its multiple delays. The film is now set to release on April 10, Eid. The long wait for the release date was a testing time for the filmmaker.
“I won’t say that it wasn’t frustrating, it really was. But I kept my cool through it. I knew what isn’t in my hands I can’t do much about it. So I kept my cool, had patience, didn’t make any hasty decision that let me do this or that. I let things fall in place and kept the film first, frustration second. Anyone would be restless. You expect your baby to come on a certain date but when you’re told there’s more time, you obviously feel a little. But everything happens at right time and now is Maidaan’s time and I’m really excited,” he added.
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