While Abhay Deol-starrer has completed its Orissa schedule and is now headed to Wales, a second film, by Ujjwal Chatterjee, is gearing up to roll by the month-end in London
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 15, 2018)

Abhay Deol’s next, Jungle Cry, a film based on the historic win of the Under-14 rugby team of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences’ (KISS) has gone on the floors. After a month-long schedule in Orissa, the unit will head to Wales on November 19 for another month-long schedule. The film traces the journey of these tribal boys who stunned the world to win the International School Rugby Tournament in London. Abhay plays the coach of the boys, Rudraksha Jena. The lead actress is yet to be finalised.

Associate producer Shabbir Boxwala (right) told Mirror, “We plan to wrap up the film by December-end. With Prashant Shah coming on board as producer, it’s an international project now and is being shot on a lavish scale. We have roped in Robert Miller who was the sports coordinator on films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Student of the Year among others. Paul Walsh who trained the original rugby team is a consultant on our films and is training our kids from our film.”

Interestingly, another film, this one titled Jungle Crows, on the same subject is also set to roll soon. This one is being helmed by National Award-winning director Ujjwal Chatterjee (left). “We will be starting our shoot in London after November 27 since I have a prior commitment to wrap up first. The recce in London, Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar was completed last month. Our cast will be finalised in the next few days.”

When informed about the rival production, Shabbir retorted, “We have acquired the rights from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences before we set out to make this film. Achyuta Samanta, the founder of KISS, has blessed our project.” 

Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; October 2, 2018)

Before Shabbir Boxwala kick-starts the biopic on Vikram Batra in collaboration with Dharma Productions, he is bankrolling another project, starring Abhay Deol, with Los Angeles-based producer Prashant Shah. Says a source, “It’s a sports-based film called Jungle Cry. Abhay plays the role of a real-life coach Rudraksha Jena, who is based in Bhubaneshwar. He had led an under-14 team to victory at the International School Rugby Tournament in London in 2007. The film was initially offered to Abhishek Bachchan, but talks with him didn’t materialise. Later, Abhay was roped in.”

The actor has been busy learning the game while prepping for the movie. The source adds, “The team will shoot the inspirational human drama in Odisha. It is expected to go on floors within a month.” Interestingly, Shabbir has already worked with the other Deol brothers — Sunny (Vishwatma, 1992) and Bobby (Gupt, 1997). We called up Prashant, who told us, “We will announce the film in two weeks. We can’t talk about it right now.”