Cricketers in Bollywood

Cricket and Bollywood have been old romance buddies, and their penchant for each other never ceases to end. But while the Bolly brigade’s intrusion through business ventures of owning teams has met with great success, cricketers have not been as lucky with their transformation from the pitch to the big screen. Not even the most die-hard fans loyalty could help them keep their careers in Bollywood afloat.

Back in the 70’s Salim Durrani kickstarted the trend when he made his silver screen debut with Charitra, followed by cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Syed Kirmani, Sandeep Patil and Mohsin Khan, all of who gave up their filmi aspirations after their films met with a lukewarm response at the box office. Next in line were cricketers Salil Ankola, Ajay Jadeja and Vinod Kambli, but they too failed to impress theatre audiences. Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble too couldn’t resist the lure of Bollywood and were seen doing cameos in a few films albeit as themselves. Akshay Kumar-starrer Patiala House and Victory earlier too boasted of several cricketers who played themselves on screen, including Brett Lee.
Incidentally, none of the films clicked, and only both of Kapil’s films were well-recieved. “Good looks and charm are not a guarantee to make it big in Bollywood. And this is something that most cricketers-turned-actors tend to overlook,” feels trade analyst Amod Mehra. “Acting is an art, while cricket is a skill and they are two different things altogether. They rocked on the field, but lacked screen presence in films,” he adds.

Many cricketers unable to resist the lure of the arclights then also tried their luck on the small screen too. But unlike their peers who were happy hosting cricket based shows, many forayed on to the acting front, but unsuccessfully. “It was only Ajay Jadeja’s charm that kept him in the running in a reality dance show, while Navjot Singh Siddhu was only a hit as a celebrity judge on a show. Salil too was not really a big star on TV,” points out a TV director.

“They don’t realise that their fans love their game and them as sports stars,” adds a film-maker who had cast a cricket star in the lead. He does admit that the casting did create a positive buzz for the film, but doesn’t deny that they are non-actors.