As told to Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 19, 2018)

I had just five months for prep before I started filming Reema Kagti’s sports drama Gold which was inspired by the national hockey team’s historic win at the 1948 Summer Olympics when they beat England as a free nation. I played field hockey player Raghubir Pratap Singh who had his muse in Padma Shri-awardee Kunwar Digvijay Singh aka Babu, one of the greatest dribblers in the game. The game Reema expected from me was of international standard and though it was a daunting prospect, I wanted to give the sport my all.

However, there was this niggling concern that five months may not be enough to up my game. I found inspiration in Academy Award-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal who had played a boxer in the 2015 American sports drama Southpaw. In one of his interviews, Jake had admitted that he quickly realised that six months was too short a time to pick up the sport. So, what he did was train for two hours every morning. The practice session was arranged by his studio. Then, he trained for a few more hours in the evening too by setting up a boxing ring in his backyard. His words really charged me up and I extended my five months of prep to 10 by practising twice a day, devoting two hours to each session. So enthusiastic was I that at times the makers had to arrange for boys to practice with me in my extra time. On occasions they even banned me from certain sessions because I just wouldn’t stop training.

We had some great coaches like former international field hockey player Michael Nobbs who had coached the Indian men’s field hockey team between 2011-13 and Clarence Lobo who was recently conferred with the Dronacharya Award for his contribution to hockey through coaching over the last 25 years. Both of them have been the reason for the kind of hockey you see me play in the film.

I remember on the first day of our practice sessions, many were scrutinising me wondering if I would be able to produce the kind of hockey required. Looking at them I wondered if they would end up kicking me out of the film. Even Michael was watching us play on Skype and I don’t think he was very impressed with my performance on the field that day. But a few months later, after a shot, I could see that he was impressed with the change in my game. Such memories I will always cherish.

I even forged a great bond with Sunny Kaushal, who played Himmat Singh, another team player whose character was modelled on Balbir Singh Sr, three-time Olympic gold champ who played a key role in India’s wins in the 1948 Summer Olympics. Sunny was one of the reasons I played the way I did on screen and for my character turning out so well.

We were two strong threads in the plot and spent a lot of time practising with each other. My all-time favourite shot was the smash. All our efforts were worth it in the end because as the popular saying goes, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” The kind of feedback I got for my performance after the film released reinstated my faith in hard work.

Cut to 2013 and Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che! (below) for which I had to learn the Gujarati dialect. Two years later, for Subhash Kapoor’s Guddu Rangeela (right) I worked on the Haryanvi dialect and it was Awadhi for Gold. I had language coaches for all these films and while most of these sessions were scheduled for over 10 or more classes, I started getting a hang of it by the third or the fourth workshop itself. I love working on new languages and have a knack for them.

Moving on, I play a member of the Special Forces in my next show and have worked even harder on the training for this one. I spent around three weeks with certain members of the Special Forces so I would look, behave and even walk with them, sometimes lugging 40 kg of weight. I also underwent weapon training, including firing with the IWI Tavor, an Israeli bullpup assault rifle. My physical training in the gym also went on for two months. This has been my most challenging role after Gold.

I enjoy the prep because there is so much I get to learn during the process. I am hungry for such opportunities.

Kunal Kapoor reveals that he’s been working on scripts of four fi lms and a show; discusses how he mastered the game of hockey and took on bullies for a new film
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 31, 2018) 

Kunal Kapoor’s Independence Day release, Reema Kagti’s sports drama Gold, sees him in the role a hockey player from the team that brought home the first gold medal for India as an independent nation in the 1948 Olympic Games in London. The 38-year-old actor admits that while he has watched the sport for years, training in it was a different ballgame altogether.

“I hadn’t played hockey before and it was exciting to learn something new. We trained with Michael Nobbs, the ex-coach of the national team, along with Sandeep Singh, a former captain. I’ve always been into fitness, but hockey requires a different set of skills, hand-eye coordination and plenty of stamina,” explains Kunal who trained for four months in Mumbai and a month in London, admitting that the first few weeks were difficult, but it got better as they went along. “We would train every morning from 7am to around 9.30am and my respect for hockey players has gone up after being on the field.”

The actor jokingly describes his co-stars as a “bratty bunch”, pointing out that Akshay Kumar as the team manager on screen and the leader of pranksters off camera balances work with fun and tries to make the shoot a breeze. “Acting needs a fine balance and that is something Akshay sir has mastered. During breaks, we’d play cricket or football and after pack-up, volleyball. Besides the actors, we had another 16 players training with us and the bonding was incredible. It was like the camaraderie during Rang De Basanti.”

The weather in London was a challenge with the sunny day suddenly turning cloudy and a shower bringing in a sharp fall in the temperature and necessitating a change in the on-set lighting. However, despite the hurdles, Kunal is all for sports biopics and is glad so many are being made. “I’m obsessed with what happened 250 years ago and would love to make an action period film from the time. I got a chance with Veeram, a desi Macbeth, but I want to push the envelope further. I have done dramas and slice-of-life films. Now, it’s time to explore an out-and-out romantic film, a comedy and an action thriller,” he says.

His next film, Noblemen, is a tryst with Shakespearean drama again. “I’m teaching The Merchant of Venice in the film and it rolls out like the play too, touching on the subject of bullying and how it affects the mindset of children. It also looks at students coming to terms with their sexuality. It is a brave film exploring topics that are usually pushed under the rug,” informs the actor who when he is not facing the camera is working at his tech company, writing scripts or racing cars.

Sharing his passion for racing, he reveals that he’s obsessed with fast cars and has trained at a rally school outside Mumbai. “I took part in a vintage rally in Europe and a couple of years ago, even trained in Formula 3 racing in Abu Dhabi. This year I’m planning to take time off to train at a school in Manali run by a famous rally driver,” he shares.

He is also dabbling in another passion, working on four film scripts and one show simultaneously. “Writing comes naturally to me, I started with writing notes to myself, then dabbled in some bad poetry which improved after a while, then moved to short films. The first script I co-developed was Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. Now, I have my hands full with five projects one of which should roll early next year. It’s an ensemble cast, a slice-of-life comedy set in Varanasi. I’m also working on a biopic and a coming-of-age story of three guys. The fourth script is based on a true incident,” he reveals, reasoning that sometimes you don’t get scripts of your choice and instead of waiting it’s better to develop characters that challenge you. “In this industry people are quick to put you in a box, it’s important to break out just as quickly.”

Aimee McDaniel, sports coordinator of films like Invictus and Million Dollar Arm, and former India coach Michael Nobbs, on working with Reema Kagti on her hockey-drama
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 4, 2018)

For the hockey sequences in Gold, her first directorial since the 2012 psychological-horror Talaash, director Reema Kagti commissioned acclaimed Hollywood sports coordinator Aimee McDaniel (left), who has worked on Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated sports-drama Invictus, and the Jon Hamm, Suraj Sharma-starrer Million Dollar Arm. Meanwhile, former international field hockey player Michael Nobbs worked closely with the film’s team as a coach. Nobbs has also coached the Indian men’s national field hockey team between 2011-13.

Aimee informs that even though this is her first Indian project, she had been to India for Million Dollar Arm, which revolved around a sports agent who stages an unconventional recruitment strategy to get talented Indian cricket players to play Major League Baseball, and was shot in India, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. “I had spent most of my time in New Delhi and Mumbai and got to travel in local trains, visit the Taj Mahal. So, I was familiar with the place, but I’d never choreographed field hockey. After reading the script and a 45-minute skype call with Reema, I could see her passion for the project and agreed to be a part of the film,” Aimee says.

While she did her homework before arriving in India (which included watching Shimit Amin’s Shah Rukh Khan-starrer sports-drama Chak De! India), Aimee reveals that the first thing she did after that was getting in touch with the Indian coach on the film. “Everyone knows the outcome of the match, but my job was to tell the characters’ story through the game and Reema was a big support in helping me achieve that. The actors trained for months before they began shooting and I choreographed the sequences keeping their strengths in mind — like someone was a good defender, while the other was good at gaolkeeping. All of them kept practicing with the hired England players till they got it right,” she says, refusing to name a favourite from the players, including Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh and Vineet Kumar Singh, among others.

Speaking of her experience of working on an Indian film, in this case produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, she points out, “There’s a fire in their eyes that I don’t see often in American films. They were harder on themselves than I was on them.”

Meanwhile, Michael (left) trained with the actors for six months, which would begin at 6 am. “Hockey is a complex game and it takes a lot to be an adequate player, so I spent a lot of time helping them understand the sport, it’s nuances and postures. Kunal was fantastic and was a keen learner who constantly asked questions. Even the other players gave their hundred percent,” he says.

Aimee says she has become a fan of the crew’s work ethic after her six-week stint, and is all praise for the film’s lead, Akshay Kumar. “We’d discuss his reactions depending on the action that we had choreographed. He is a really nice and funny guy,” she says, while Michael adds, “He is an outstanding actor and an outstanding person.”

Reema Kagti’s sports-drama, which is based on India’s first Gold medal as a free nation at the London Olympics, opens on Independence Day
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 13, 2018)

After the 2012 neo-noir thriller Talaash, featuring Aamir Khan, Reema Kagti returns as director with the sports drama, Gold. She was researching subjects when her friend, Ankur Tiwari, nudged her in the direction of the 1948 Olympics and the first gold medal India won in hockey as a free nation.

Reema quickly realised that while we had won medals earlier, this one was special and in the course of her readings, stumbled on a gentleman, who had been the assistant manager of the Indian hockey squad during the 1936 Berlin Olympics and risen to the rank of the manager during the London Olympics 12 years later.

“His life has loosely inspired Akshay Kumar’s character who, in a bid to galvanise the players in Berlin, pulls out the flag of the Indian National Congress in the locker room during half-time. The flag was banned in Germany at the time but still inspired respect and all the players saluted it. That incident is a defining moment in the inception of my film,” admits the writer-director.

Gold is set to release on the 70th anniversary of the historic win of 1948 and Reema is quick to point out that while the big match of 1948 was played on August 12, the one in Berlin was played on August 15. The film focuses on two historic matches, the first one being the 1936 Summer Olympics. The final match was on the last day of the 12-day event and the Indian team scored eight goals against Germany’s one goal. “India bagged the gold medal but not as a free nation as it was still under British rule,” informs Reema, adding that shooting the emotional scenes brought out patriotic feelings on set. “The feeling of national pride that was there in the ’30s and ’40s still exists. Through one person’s journey, the film showcases how several people contributed to the wins. India’s struggle for freedom which was on in full swing at the time plays out in the backdrop.”

The film marks the first collaboration between Akshay Kumar and producers Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. It has been shot in Yorkshire, The Midlands and Mumbai. The ensemble cast includes Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Vineet Kumar Singh and marks the film debut of TV actress Mouni Roy.

Reema has brought on board Michael Nobbs, a former field hockey player who represented Australia at the 1984 Summer Olympics and went on to coach teams in Sydney, Japan and Russia. He also coached the Indian men’s hockey team from 2011 to 2013. “Our hockey consultant is not only well-qualified for the job but was actually coached by Anglo-Indians who migrated to Australia and instantly felt a strong connect with the script. The actors and technicians were not just learning hockey, they were also studying ‘period hockey’ because during those 12 years, not just the rules but even the sticks were different,” Reema points out.