Amit R Sharma’s last theatrical offering was the wonderful Badhaai Do (2018), which won multiple awards. The director has had to brave the pandemic, lockdowns and multiple delays to ready his next, Maidaan, led by Ajay Devgn. What has he learnt from the experience? “Patience,” says Sharma. 

He believes that the biopic of Syed Abdul Rahim, who was the Indian football team’s coach and manager between 1950 and 1963, deserves time and care. If it took him five years to make it, so be it. 

“The story was such that I couldn’t detach myself. Even when we wrote the film, we didn’t want to do a rushed job. When we started out, Syed Abdul Rahim’s Wikipedia page had Jarnail Singh’s picture. We met [Rahim’s] son Hakim saab. When Rahim started out [as a coach], his motivation was solely that India should be recognised the world over.”

Sharma is a cricket fan, like the majority of the Indian population. As he went ahead to tell the football coach’s story, it was the man, not the game that drew him.

“I’ve played cricket all my life. When I said yes, it was for the charm of the man. I had to learn [so much]. The football rules of the ’50s were different. There was no foul, no red and yellow cards before. There were no substitutes for injured players. Novy Kapadia [football journalist and commentator] helped us capture the mood of the ’50s. Today, I can even talk to [Lionel] Messi about football.”

The biggest challenge was to give the leading man memorable scenes even as he stayed off the field. “He is the mastermind [of the game], but how do you give him importance? He had to be the story’s hero. We worked on detailing. I didn’t want the people from the football team watching the film and saying it’s not authentic. Ajay trusted our vision.”

In a crucial scene in the trailer, Devgn is seen giving a pep talk to the players. Tell him it feels similar to the memorable ‘sattar minute’ scene of Chak De India (2007), and Sharma notes, “But they are different films and different sports altogether. Football and hockey are sports where the coach plays a major role. You play mind games with the opposition. We devised game plans. Match scores are available on Google, but we had to make the five minutes [of each match] an edge-of-the-seat experience.”