National Award-winning director Kabir Khan spoke with Akkshay Rathie on India TV’s podcast The Filmy Hustle and opened up about making a film called 83, which was the best experience of his life.
Kabir Khan, the director of 83, opened up about the experience of shooting for the first sports drama of his life. Calling it a story of a one-month journey, Kabir called Ranveer Singh starrer his life’s best experience. He even shared several anecdotes, like when the West Indies former cricketer Clive Lloyd walked into the sets of 83 and also when Ranveer cried like a baby while holding the real World Cup trophy.
Kabir Khan wanted perfection, not a look-alike contest
’83 is a film based on a true story about 14 icons in a cricket-obsessed country. And people know everything about these legends. Like, there are 20 to 25 per cent of people in this country who know everything about these icons, from how Kapil Dev walked to how he talked, his bowling action, everything is known to people. So, when I got the responsibility to recreate the most iconic sports moment of our history, I thought, if we did anything wrong, we’d be trolled brutally. Hence, we made two, three decisions. One was that a look-alike contest would kill the film. Because no matter what we do, we could never come close to the originality. So, this is what I even told Ranveer. We will try to come as close as to Kapil Dev, but will not copy him. That’s the way we approached it,’ Kabir Khan said.
Kapil Dev’s participation in the making of the 83 movie
Kabir Khan further added, ‘We just went and spent as much time as we could with Kapil Dev. We technically lived with him. Ranveer even lived at his place for 14 days. We told him that we are fly at the wall and you do your work, but after a point he said, ‘Ranveer can’t be a fly on the wall. All my meetings and everything will eventually become about him.’ But we persisted and that really helped us, to be able to get that kind of access was amazing. Later, what we did was that we put our entire script in front of him and we asked Kapil Dev to read it in his style. And Ranveer was like a sponge. He observed everything he soaked in all.’
Kabir Khan called 83 Ranveer’s best performance
Moreover, he’s kind of a method actor. He. He’s a guy who likes to go through a process. So for six months, he would only speak like Kapil Dev and walk like him. And even when the film ended, Deepika Padukone said to me, ‘Thank god! Finally, I’m getting Ranveer back because I felt like I’ve been living with Kapil for over a year’. I don’t say it in a pompous way because it was my film, but? I would say that 83 is Ranveer’s finest performance, because maintaining that performance was delicate. Let’s be honest, Kapil Dev had a peculiar way of speaking. But to get that right throughout, the film is commendable. All I told him was that, ‘I’m gonna keep my eyes and ears open, and I’m only going to tell you when the note goes over the top and I’ll pull you back’, but thankfully I never had to do it. He just did it all himself. And that’s how it happened.’
Shooting 83 with the real legends
It was a great privilege for us that we had everybody from the 83 team, imagine Kapil Dev walking in to train or to bowl like him or Jimmy Amarnath coming in to give lessons. That was a great process for me, and I still say this. That process of 83 has to be the most brilliant process I’ve ever gone through in my life because one, it is an iconic story and then, that team! They don’t make such team anymore. Like, we all know what kind of pressures come through biopics, that too for one person. Here, there are 14 icons. Like, I know, people sitting through edits, people changing their scripts, and life stories. But with Kapil sir, it did not happen with us. He gave us the story and he said, ‘We’ll watch it at the premiere now’. In my mind, I thought, no, that’s not gonna happen. He is gonna come back in edits and all, but no, I was wrong. They all came as a team to the premiere and watched the film for the first time. And again! That is why they don’t make people like that anymore.’
When Clive Lloyd came to sets of 83
Kabir Khan shared an interesting story and said, ‘I often say that 83 was blessed by the gods of cricket. I remember shooting the climax of the 83, where the cup was being handed to Ranveer and we had very cleverly put it in the last schedule because we wanted the actors to get the right emotion to go through the training to actually fight for the World Cup and then lift the trophy. The last was also being shot at the Lord’s balcony, where it all actually happened. I heard murmuring around and then Clive Lloyd walked in. The captain of the West Indies team walks in, sits here next to me and how do I react to that? So before starting the shoot, I asked him, ‘Do you want to go a little closer?’ He looked at me deadpan and says, ‘You want me to see the cup being given away for the second time?’ With that sarcasm, we shot the scene.’
When Ranveer cried like a baby
‘Just before rolling the camera for the last scene, I remember two women from the Lords walking in with something covered under a velvet. Cloth. Later, they removed the cloth, there was the real trophy and they said, ‘We thought you would like to shoot with the real one, ‘ and at that very moment, we got goosebumps. Later, I picked up the trophy. I gave it to Ranveer, I sat back and said action. Then we did the shot and the moment I said ‘Cut,’ he just put the thing down, Ranveer broke down and started crying like a baby. Then, eventually, the whole team started crying because it was also the end of the four-month shooting Journey for us. We were standing on that spot, holding the real cup, dressed exactly like those people. It was too emotional a moment, and all the boys were saying, ‘This is what we live for. Films will come and go, but those moments that we lived.’ The emotional core of the film was important for me. These cricketers, who were believed by no one, they were written off as the worst One Day International team in the world, highest odds were against them and yet they did what they did, so that I think is what resonated with the audiences.’ Kabir Khan concluded.
