To many Indians, the nation’s World Cup cricket triumph in 1983 is as culturally significant as England’s momentous soccer success in 1966. A new film replays the achievement in all its sporting glory and behind the scenes drama using kit supplied by VMI to authenticate the action.
The Hindi-language film, called ’83’ and due for release in 2020, is directed by Kabir Khan and produced for Reliance Entertainment. It stars Ranveer Singh as Indian team captain Kapil Dev and Tahir Raj Bhasin as batting great Sunil Gavaskar and was largely filmed on location in England.
“This is a classic sporting underdog story,” says Jim Edgar, line producer on the production. “India had never won a World Cup and went into the tournament as 66-1 outsiders. Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall and the rest of the West Indies team were superstars and overwhelming favourites. India was just expected to make up the numbers.”
Permission was granted to film at Lords, which hosted the final in which India beat the West Indies, the Oval cricket ground and also at the Neville ground in Tunbridge Wells, scene of a match-winning 175 by Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe.
Most of the on-field action though was filmed at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and Dulwich College over a six and half week period last summer.
“The school has exceptional quality pitches which we were able to use for the lengthy shooting period,” explains Edgar. “Aside from Tunbridge Wells, the other match venues from 1983 have changed quite considerably. We erected a green screen around the filming area which will have meticulous VFX of the actual events added in post.”
Research was essential for this factually grounded story, not least because – as with the iconography of 1966 – certain balls, wickets, shots, interviews, poses and celebrations have passed into Indian folklore.
This period detail included the proximation of shots and angles originally broadcast by the BBC.
“The goal was to film the matches much like the existing TV footage using distant high angles and with lenses that were capable of getting pin-sharp footage from the long end of a zoom,” he says.
Director of photography Aseem Mishra selected ARRI Alexa SXTs for the multi-cam production and paired them with Canon CN20x50 lenses supplied by VMI.
With an ultra-telephoto 20x zoom offering 50-1000mm focal length (and a range of 75-1500mm with the 1.5x converter activated) the CN20 are more commonly used for shooting natural history.
“These are specialist lenses which is why trying to find the right solution wasn’t easy for the length of time we required them but VMI came to the rescue,” Edgar says. “I’ve known VMI for years and after discussing our requirements with Stuart Neate we were able to capture the cricket action with the feeling of being filmed for the first time.”
“It’s also graded with a vintage look but this is a cinematic piece of storytelling not a docudrama.”
The actors playing the Indian team spent nine months honing their cricketing skills under the supervision of former cricketer and member of the victorious squad, Balwinder Singh Sandhu.
The production also hired professional cricketers from English county clubs and from the West Indies to help replicate highlights of the finals.
“This is one of the biggest movies to come out of India in terms of profile and budget for over a decade,” Edgar says.
With cricket as revered as religion in the country unsurprisingly, “There is a huge amount of anticipation and interest in the film’s release.”
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