The filmmaker revealed how he and his leading man of 83 Ranveer Singh had landed at Kapil Dev's house just to observe his nuances and body language
Picture Courtesy: Official Instagram Account, Kabir Khan
Ranveer Singh and Kabir Khan are gearing up for 83, a film that chronicles the journey of the Indian Cricket team from ebb to creating history. We were the ultimate underdogs, emerging triumphant in a game that was declared one-sided by both critics and cricket lovers. The story has all the meat and juice to be both rousing and riveting. 83 opens in cinemas on December 24.
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In an interview with Neha Dhupia on her show No Filter Neha, Kabir Khan revealed how he and Ranveer visited Kapil Dev at his residence to prep for the film. Talking about the same, Khan said, "We just took our bag and baggage and landed up in Delhi. I really don't know, so see, Romiji and Kapil Dev are just the most gracious hosts, I mean, for them they would always say, our house is always open for you, a lot of people say that and I don't think you're supposed to take that seriously and 'hey! You said your house is open' so Ranveer and I just landed there."
He added, "No it was a fabulous time to be able to trail Kapil Dev everywhere. I remember when Ranveer Singh went like, sir, we'll sit, you do the meeting, we'll be fly on the wall. He said, Ranveer Singh is in my room so there will be no fly on the wall, like there'd be no meeting."
And this is what the filmmaker had to say on signing Singh for the role of Dev. He said, "Both of them are very health conscious, Kapil sir just loves playing Golf, he can spend 10 hours on a Golf course. In fact, what he was really unhappy about was that we were stopping him from playing Golf enough. But one day I remember going with him and it was hot in Delhi and Ranveer and I were walking with him for 4 hours. And Ranveer and I were just looking and wondering if this guy is going to stop walking or is he just gonna keep playing Golf. But I think it was a very important stage for our prep, those two weeks that we spent over there, especially for Ranveer. Of course, not taking anything away from Mr Gaikwad, who has done the look for the film, but today, if people are reacting in a certain way and saying that how did Ranveer Singh end up looking exactly like Kapil Dev."
He continued, "Of course, it's what we have done in terms of makeup, it is also expressions and that is those 10-14 days is what Ranveer really caught on. How to hold those expressions. Because I really believe it's about getting the expressions right and is something I told Ranveer right in the beginning of the film that it's not a look-alike contest, it's not about how close you are gonna look like Kapil Dev. In 10 minutes the audience needs to forget that it's Ranveer Singh and you need to go with the character and it's about you taking on the persona and that's something that Ranveer has really cracked."
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