Scripting The Pitch: Bollywood's Fervent Affair With Cricket

It바카라�s the year 1990. On a snow-laden pitch in Kashmir, a few boys play cricket with a single bat. India and Pakistan are at loggerheads in a cricket match being broadcast on a radio nearby. A couple of young men warm their hands by a fire as they animatedly debate Sachin Tendulkar바카라�s competence. 바카라�Tendulkar does a full-toss! It바카라�s a six!바카라� exclaims the radio commentator. Shiva, one of the little boys, starts yelling Sachin바카라�s name in excitement. The young men look over as Abdul, Shiva바카라�s friend, rushes to stop him. 바카라�Don바카라�t shout his name,바카라� he says. 바카라�But why?바카라� Shiva asks. 바카라�Look over there. It바카라�ll be a problem,바카라� Abdul warns, as another boy begins to tackle Shiva. The young men come over, shouting, 바카라�That Indian dog will hit a six? Let바카라�s teach this boy a lesson!바카라� They start assaulting Shiva, and one of them yells, 바카라�Say 바카라�Long Live Pakistan!바카라� Go on!바카라� As Shiva gets beaten up, Abdul throws fistfuls of snow at the men and manages to pull Shiva. 바카라�Run, Shiva!바카라� he says, as the two boys escape from the men.

The arrests of Kashmiris and Muslims for cheering Pakistan in Indo-Pak matches have become a troublingly commonplace affair in the past few years. During the 2023 Cricket World Cup, when India lost the final match, seven Kashmiri students were booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for celebrating India바카라�s loss. It would, therefore, seem curious that a Hindi film should open with a scene, where a boy is assaulted for cheering an Indian player in a match바카라�an occurrence divorced from reality. But when it is Vivek Agnihotri바카라�s 2022 film The Kashmir Files, the decision doesn바카라�t seem as surprising. Rather, it comes across as a well-designed inversion of facts and the cricket match, a remarkably intelligent choice to set the tone for what is to follow. Agnihotri knows well the value with which a game of cricket in India is imbued and how it can be used to rile up volatile sentiments in favour of propaganda.

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Sports In Cinema

Seldom has sport been just a sport in cinema. Be it Hollywood, or elsewhere in the world, the sports genre has always accrued the social significance of 바카라�a struggle against all odds바카라� in the way it props its protagonists바카라�usually an underdog individual or team바카라�and narrates a journey towards the ultimate victory. In India, allegiance to the nation is often the dominant refrain in the typical sports film. And nowhere is this more visible than in stories that are premised on cricket.

From the gullies to the stadiums, cricket has been riding on the tide of collective pride and joy of millions since pre-independence times. Often historicised as a colonial legacy, cricket is not your ordinary sport that merely tests the mettle of its enthusiasts바카라�its ability to mobilise mass emotions is no less than that of a war. It is no wonder then, that India바카라�s victory against Pakistan in a World cup match in June 1999바카라�right in the middle of the Kargil war바카라�served as a major boost for the Indian soldiers. While talking to reporters after the win, one of them was reported to have said, 바카라�We have won the battle of nerves and will surely win the battle of bullets also.바카라�

It is this very impetus that Hindi cinema has capitalised in the wake of economic liberalisation바카라�when private television channels saw a lucrative opportunity in the sport and began pumping massive resources into live cricket broadcasts. Cricket has served as a pivotal backdrop in earlier Hindi films as well, dating right back to Subodh Mukherjee바카라�s Love Marriage (1959), in which the decade바카라�s heartthrob Dev Anand played the role of a star cricketer. Even the Khans saw a chance in the sport early on in their careers바카라�while Aamir Khan featured in Dev Anand바카라�s Awwal Number (1990), Shah Rukh Khan appeared in Rajiv Mehra바카라�s Chamatkar (1992). However, it was not until Ashutosh Gowariker바카라�s magnum opus Lagaan (2001) that producers realised the immense potential in combining the two opioids of Indian popular culture바카라�cricket and cinema.

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Bollywood

Lagaan (2001) altered the landscape of Bollywood in numerous ways. For one, it turned Hindi cinema into a major source of India바카라�s soft power on the global stage, with its nomination in the 바카라�Best Foreign Language Film바카라� category at the Academy Awards. At home, it augmented the sports genre as a credible thematic of interest for cinemagoers. On a stylistic level, the idea that the nation바카라�s history could also be imagined through a game of cricket germinated from Lagaan. An odd bunch of villagers, coming together to defeat their colonial overlords at their own game for a tax exemption, became everyone바카라�s favourite underdogs.

Thereafter, there was no stopping the influx of cricket into cinema. In 2005, Nagesh Kukunoor made Iqbal, where Shreyas Talpade바카라�in the titular role as a deaf and mute boy fixated with cricket바카라�won the audience바카라�s hearts with his tender performance. Then there was Anurag Singh바카라�s Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009), 바카라�inspired바카라� from Andy Fickman바카라�s She바카라�s the Man (2006). In the film, Veera (Rani Mukerji) cross dresses as a man to win a place in the men바카라�s team, so she can play for the World Cup. With its slightly daft and roundabout 바카라�feminist바카라� take, the film attempted to speak about opportunities denied to women because of their gender. Abhishek Kapoor바카라�s Kai Po Che! (2013)바카라�adapted from author Chetan Bhagat바카라�s The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008)바카라�was also a tale spun around cricket. Set in Ahmedabad in the early 2000s, the story centres three friends who want to open a cricket academy together. However, their friendship is put to test amidst the devastation caused by the 2001 earthquake and the communal hate fuelled by the Gujarat riots.

The aspirations in these films weren바카라�t just limited to the Indian cricket team바카라�in Nikkhil Advani바카라�s Patiala House (2011), the character of Gattu (Akshay Kumar) was loosely based on the English spinner Monty Panesar. While the film tried to build an interesting premise of Sikh migration from India to countries like the UK post-Partition, the narrative logic lost its way in its attempts to hark back to a diasporic nationalism that seemed misplaced in the plot.

Cricket바카라�s imbrication with cinema only deepened with the Indian Premiere League, established in 2007. Bollywood stars were no longer merely playing the roles of cricketers in movies바카라�they were now also buying them at auctions for the franchise teams they owned. From Shah Rukh Khan to Preity Zinta, actors appeared in live-telecast auctions, adding to the glamour of a format that would eventually transform the fundamental nature of the sport.

The late 2010s also saw the emergence of cricket biopics. Films were made on prominent names from the cricketing world like MS Dhoni and Mohammad Azharuddin. Sushant Singh Rajput바카라�s restrained and composed portrayal of Dhoni in Neeraj Pandey바카라�s MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) was appreciated by critics and viewers alike. However, there was criticism from various quarters about the omission of key controversies that marked Dhoni바카라�s career from the narrative, turning the film into a sanitised hagiography. Anthony D바카라�Souza바카라�s Azhar (2016), on the other hand, was all about the match-fixing controversy that Azharuddin found himself embroiled in, with very little game in it. While the film itself was drab, it generated significant public debate about the clean chit given to the cricketer in the story. Law enforcement officers who were involved in the case rejected its depiction, asserting that Azharuddin바카라�s confessions of his involvement in match-fixing were on record.

While cricket undergoes ceaseless facelifts to remain relevant in a media-saturated environment, cinema바카라�s investment, if anything, has only increased in the sport. Films like 83 (2021), Shabaash Mithu (2022), Jersey (2022), Ghoomer (2023) and Mr. & Mrs. Mahi (2024) continue to be made relentlessly to profit off the more or less consistent popularity of the sport among the masses. However, the excitement around such movies has begun to wane, with the industry having nothing new to offer to cinema lovers. The plotlines remain hinged on dull, melodramatic trajectories and there is no fresh insight into the game provided by their stories. As Bollywood undergoes a crisis of content and inspiration, now would be a good time to take a lesson or two on reinvention from its cultural counterpart, cricket.

Apeksha Priyadarshini is Senior Copy Editor, Outlook. She writes on cinema, art, politics, gender & social justice

This article appears in Outlook Magazine바카라�s June 21, 2025 issue, Innings/Outings, which captures a turning point in Indian cricket 바카라�from retiring legends to small-town stars reshaping the game바카라�s power map. It appeared in print as Screen Shots.