It’s been two decades since the story of a deaf and mute boy who dreams of donning the blue jersey for Team India hit the screens. Iqbal (2005), the underdog story by filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor, changed the landscape for both Bollywood sports films and then-debutant Shreyas Talpade.

“It was the turning point of my career. Now that the film has completed 20 years, it feels unreal,” the 49-year-old tells us. He was juggling theatre and television when he had auditioned for the film, but had no idea that it was for the lead. “I thought it was for a small role. Once I was on board, I couldn’t believe it! And my only thought was: this is my one opportunity, and I cannot let it go,” he recalls.

The actor’s journey was not without its sacrifices or challenges. “I got married just a day before shooting began, and the next morning, I flew to Hyderabad for training. There was no honeymoon, only Iqbal,” he says with a laugh. The preparation was rigorous — cricket training, milking buffaloes, practising sign language, and more cricket training.

And while shooting the climax, Shreyas suffered an ankle injury: “I pushed through and gave the shot again because I knew how important it was. Thankfully, the ankle wasn’t fractured, just twisted.”

All these years later, Shreyas insists that he remembers every single day on the sets vividly. “Naseeruddin (Shah, actor) sir and Girish (Karnad, actor) ji were so warm. We’d eat together, play Scrabble, watch films. They never made me feel the pressure I could have felt,” he shares, adding, “Nagesh always said that this is not just a sports film, but a story of a boy with dreams. That’s why it connected with so many people and is still so fresh. It changed my life forever.”