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[Photo Source: Facebook/MS DhoniTheFilm]
One of Bollywood’s biggest cricketing films –”MS Dhoni: The Untold Story” is heading towards its release date. India’s most successful captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on whose life the film is based, hopes that the film will inspire the audience especially the youth of India.
At a recent promotional event in New York, Dhoni candidly shared some of his life’s moments and how that transformed a simple small town boy to a man who has captained India to unprecedented highs. The film, which is due to release worldwide on September 30 is directed by Neeraj Pandey and will see actor Sushant Singh Rajput as Mahi and Kiara Advani as Sakshi.
He insisted that the biopic is more inspirational than entertaining. Dhoni wanted the film to show his journey, the inherent struggles in “decision-making processes.”
“One thing I told (Neeraj) Pandey is that this movie should not be to glorify me. It’s about the journey of a professional sportsperson, and that’s what it should depict,” said Dhoni. “The movie is entertaining through cricket. But the biopic also shows the other half of my life, away from cricket, the day to day decisions right from my school cricket to 2011.”
He said the first time he saw the film—an unedited version—he relieved his past again as memories of his childhood flooded his mind. “All those things that had happened became fresh in my memory- from where I lived, how my school was, where we played. I went blank,” he shared, “it was nice to be in the past for a moment and you get a view of what others think about you. I have never talked to my parents about cricket and it was nice to get a glimpse of what they really thought about me.”
“All those things that had happened became fresh in my memory—from where I lived, how my school was, where we played. I went blank,” he shared, “it was nice to be in the past for a moment and you get a view of what others think about you. I have never talked to my parents about cricket and it was nice to get a glimpse of what they really thought about me.”
When asked whether the thought of playing himself on screen ever crossed his mind, he said, “I am a professional sportsperson, I play cricket, and that’s what my job is. As far as acting is concerned, it is a very difficult job. It’s better to leave it to the professional actors.”
At the press conference, also attended by his wife Sakshi and producer Arun Pandey, Dhoni shared moments from his cricketing life that had a huge impact on him. One such incident was the loss of 2007 World Cup and the ensuing reactions against him and his team, not included in the film, which “was a big turning point in my life.”
He recalled the time when the team had returned home after making an early exit in the first round of the 2007 World Cup.
“When we landed, we had to get out in a police van. I was sitting next to Viru (Virender Sehwag) paaji. It was evening or night time. We were traveling at a decent speed of 60 kmph—that’s quite a bit for India on narrow roads. And there were media cars around us with their cameras and the big lights on top; it felt as if we had committed a big crime, maybe like a murderer or terrorist or something. We were actually chased by them.”
Dhoni underlined the need for proper infrastructure and guidance along with a passion for making India a “sporting nation.” He talked about making “a sustained investment in developing infrastructure and providing education about nutrition and health.”
“After one Olympics, if we invest in sports and say we will get a gold medal in the next Olympic, it doesn’t work like that in sports” Dhoni explained. “How it works is that you provide the infrastructure, provide education about nutrition and health. Once the athletes have all these things at their disposal over a period of time, the nation will develop as a sporting nation. That is very crucial.”
He further stated that by simply injecting money into sports does not translate into medals for the country and that it is important that parents and schools encourage children to take up sports early on.
“I think it is very important for parents and schools to push (their children) for sports and promote sports. That is how you will bring medals when it comes to games such as the Olympics,” Dhoni said. “Money doesn’t directly get you medals. Sports cannot be result oriented alone; you have to work over a period of time and educate people.”
Often referred to as “captain cool,” someone who takes decisions based on gut feeling, Dhoni revealed that his much talked about trait—his gut feeling is backed by his past experiences.
“What is gut feeling? It is all about the experiences that you have had in your life. It is about being in difficult scenarios, knowing what worked, what did not work and then taking a decision,” he said. “For instance, you don’t know anything about bikes. I open one of my bike engines and keep it in front of you and ask you ‘which model does your gut feeling say this engine belongs to,’ you will be clueless. You won’t have a gut feeling because you don’t know anything about the object there.”
Dhoni’s fans can rejoice to the fact that apart from the upcoming film, he is also considering to write a book that chronicles in detail his life’s journey. However, his fans will have to wait a bit longer for his autobiography as Dhoni intends to pen down his journey only once he retires from professional cricket.
“Book will take its time. The concept of a book was actually before the movie, but it needs a bit more effort,” he explained. “Book has the ability to be a bit more elaborate; you can write a lot more stuff. A movie has to finish in a stipulated time—two or two and half hours- otherwise, it becomes a documentary.”
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