Cricket drama ‘83’ to feature ‘Mardaani’ actor Tahir Bhasin as Sunil Gavaskar

Sport-centric films always draw massive attention in India. Be it biopics on national cricketers or general film on sports like cricket or hockey, the blending of the popularity of the game with stardom of actors always makes a safe bet for filmmakers. Bollywood’s next presentation to its audience on such a theme is ‘83’ a sports drama based on India’s maiden World Cup title in cricket in 1983.

Ace actor Ranveer Singh is set to play the skipper of that team – Kapil Dev – in the Kabir Khan directorial that will be released in April 2020 and now, it has been revealed that Tahir Bhasin, the 31-year-old Australia-educated actor who featured in 2014 release ‘Mardaani’, will portray the role of the iconic Sunil Gavaskar in the film.

“The casting of Sunil Gavaskar was important since he was one of the superstars of the team. I needed an actor with a certain gravitas to portray the Little Master. Tahir had the persona for that,” Khan, director of Salman Khan-starrer ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, confirmed the news in an interview with Mid-Day.

India had gone into the tournament as underdogs after two disappointing World Cups in 1975 and 1979 but after winning the first game against the defending champions Windies by 34 runs, Kapil’s Devils turned a confident lot and covered the distance.

They beat hosts England in the semi-finals and then beat Clive Lloyd’s Windies again in the final at Lord’s by 43 runs to bag their maiden WC title. India were all out for just 183 runs in the final but still fought every inch to deny Lloyd’s team a hat-trick of the world title.

Sandeep Patil’s son to portray his father

The 1983 WC win had changed the course of cricket in India, making it the most popular sport in the country toppling hockey. Kapil’s feat was matched 28 years later by Mahendra Singh Dhoni whose team beat Sri Lanka at home to win another title.

Among other actors who will feature in ‘83’ are Pankaj Tripathi who will don the role of manager of that squad Man Singh; Sahil Khattar who will play wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani; South Indian Jiva who will play opener Krish Srikkanth; Chirag Patil who will play his father Sandeep.

[interaction id=”5c63ec7034b4f4863ca7ad5b”]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.