Every time he stepped out to bat, there was a thundering applause. Billions of Indians pinned their hopes on him as he swung his golden bat, match after match, for over two decades. Anyone would have buckled under those kind of expectations, but not Sachin Tendulkar. He's made of a different mettle. While his insurmountable achievements are well-documented, he has always kept a low profile on the personal front. What is barely known is what went on in the mind of this cricketing genius when he stepped on to the field, perhaps on a difficult day, to give his team a much-needed big start.Or how he dealt with the lows that a sportsman experiences. His movie Sachin: A Billion Dreams, which releases this week, promises to give his fans a glimpse into this and his much-guarded personal life, including his private moments with his family. In a brief chat with Bombay Times, the Master Blaster speaks about all things dear to him, with cricket, of course, topping the list. Excerpts...

We hear it took a lot of convincing from producer Ravi Bhagchandka to get you to agree to this film. Why were you reluctant at first?
Yes, I was reluctant. I told Ravi, 'Once a sportsperson, always a sportsperson. I don't want to act! I am not going to act or dance here because that's not me; I am a private person'. He explained to me that they wanted to capture everything from real life. He said, 'It's not fiction. Everything that has happened in your life is what we will show'. So, that's when I agreed to do it. Yes, people have seen everything that has happened in my life, but they also don't know a lot of things. They don't know what I went through, what was going on in my mind during the highs or the lows. We have tried to capture all of that in the film, along with a lot of personal videos which nobody has seen. Some of the family videos are pretty interesting and nobody has had access to those. I fully understand that if you are making a movie, fans would like to see something more than what they have seen in the last 25 years. So, we have tried to balance it out. Whatever my family was comfortable sharing, is part of the film.

Being an icon brings along with it a certain amount of pressure. So, how tough was it each time you went out there to bat, knowing that practically every cricket lover in the country was pinning hopes on you?
In a way, it was good that people expected something from me. It would have been terrible if I was walking out to bat, and nobody expected anything from me. I wouldn't want to be there then. I took it positively and always told myself that people were expecting something from me because I was capable of delivering it. And finally, it's all about preparing yourself, which is most important; the results will follow. When you are preparing yourself for a big game, it's about positive reinforcement and how you convert those messages that you get from different parts of the world. Yes, there are expectations, but eventually, it's about what you tell yourself, how you make yourself believe in your strengths and then, go out there and give it your best.

How did you cope with the lows in your career?
There are highs and lows and you do get disappointed, to the extent that you don't enjoy anything once you come back to your hotel room after a game that hasn't gone well. Until the time you get back on the field and do something special, that feeling is constantly there with you. That's how it should be because you feel that way only if you care about something deeply. Not just during the matches, even if I had a bad practice session, my evening would be terrible. I would keep wondering why that happened. I care about cricket and I'm sure it's the case with my colleagues, too.

Did you rediscover yourself through the making of this movie?
I have been able to relive all those moments through the making of this film. I have often told myself, 'Wow! All these things actually happened in my life'. It was also very touching to see the videos from the past.

You preferred to keep a low profile even when you were playing. Was that a personality trait or a conscious decision that you took for your game?
It's our lifestyle. I come from a middle-class family with very strong values and principles. It was more about staying focussed on the game. The mantra at home was to stay focused on the game and let cricket always be in the foreground. Other things will happen in the background. The moment that reverses, your performance takes a dip. Even during a tournament, whether I had scored runs or failed, I would spend very little time thinking about the last match. I would con stantly be thinking about the next match. That was again the mantra at home - let the rest of the world discuss the last game, we talk about the next game. That endeavour to constantly try and better my performance helped me; I learnt that from my brother (Ajit Tendulkar). At home, everyone would stay balanced, whether I performed brilliantly or not. Parents always feel happy when their child does something good. My parents have always stood by me. In fact, when I didn't do well, they were even more supportive and encouraging. That's when you realise where your real strength lies, and my real strength has always been my family. And it's people's support that kept me going. I was walking out alone to bat, but I was representing so many people who contributed towards making me play better. So, it was not just me. As I always say, the records, the hundreds on field, belong to the entire nation.

Talking about family, your wife Anjali has also had a huge role to play...
Without a doubt. She understood me and very graciously took a backseat in her career. To move away from your career and sacrifice so many things for the happiness of the family, is truly remarkable.

With cricket being a religion in India, our cricketers are quite a pampered lot with all the adulation and brand endorsements that they get. Do you agree?
Who pampers them? That's a wrong word. People love them. And from my experience, I can tell you, that how much ever you are loved, it's never enough.

Do you miss playing the game?
After 24 years of playing the sport and after the kind of retirement I have had, I am content and thankful for everything that has happened in my life. Today, maybe I would play an odd exhibition game here and there, if at all.

What did you feel when you recently went to the playground at Shivaji Park where you started your career?
What an experience it was! We shot at the same spot where I had started my career. When I went there, I just stood there for a few minutes and recounted the moment when I had played the first ball of my career. It was a beautiful feeling. My cricket journey started there and after all these years, I went back to the same ground. It was like life coming full circle.

Don't you think it's high time other sports got their due? Of course, with the various leagues today, we are moving in that direction...
I have always felt very strongly about this. Today, the kabaddi league is doing well, there's badminton league, football league...without any doubt, brighter days are ahead. But believe me, things are not going to happen on their own. We will have to work really hard. Some people think that if you work hard for three months, you can get medals at the Olympics. It's not easy, because we have to remember that the rest of the world is also targeting those medals. The effort has to be consistent. I know it will happen and I'm hoping that it happens in the near future, but that near future is not in six months. It may take four or six or may be eight years.

What do you think about the many biopics being made on sports stars these days?
I like these biopics, as you get to know more about their lives. Many of them have been successful, too. Ravi (producer) came to me with a different idea, though.

Yes, but if there was a biopic to be made on you, which Bollywood star do you think would portray Sachin Tendulkar the best?
Right now, given the amount of effort that we have put in trying to gather all the information for our film, which is not just over the last 24 years but 44 years, I really need some time out. So I'm not thinking about anything else (laughs). I just need a break.

On a lighter note, since you've always been comfortable in front of the camera, as we've seen in the commercials you did earlier on, if not cricket, would you have liked to be an actor?
No, never! I would certainly be a sportsman only. If not cricket, then may be some other sport. I love playing any kind of sport. Cricket obviously has been my first love, but I enjoyed playing other sports too, be it tennis, badminton or table tennis. I even enjoyed playing kabaddi, kho kho and hand tennis in school. Sometimes, when we didn't have tennis racquets, we would play this game. So as I said, it had to be only sports for me.