For Shreyas Talpade, it’s 2005 all over again. At the start of his career, the actor had caught everyone’s attention as he played a deaf and mute cricketer in Iqbal. Over 17 years on, he is back on the cricket pitch for Kaun Pravin Tambe? The Disney+ Hotstar film is a biopic on Tambe, who made his debut in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the age of 41, when most players hang up their boots. Talpade acknowledges that shooting for the sports drama took him back to the days of Iqbal. “I would love to show the film to Nagesh [Kukunoor, Iqbal director] and my other filmmaker friends. I recently received a message from one of the ADs on Iqbal. She said that the film’s trailer made her nostalgic. When I shot for the film, those memories came flooding back,” he says.
Nagesh Kukunoor
The upcoming movie traces the story of Tambe, who since his 20s, aspired to play the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai. His breakthrough came two decades later, when Rajasthan Royals’ then-skipper Rahul Dravid chose him for his team in 2012. “For me, the story was deeply inspiring. I met Pravin several times before we started shooting. We prepped for three months. Besides picking up his style [of bowling], what I needed to get right was Pravin’s spirit and attitude towards this sport.”
Considering Dravid played a key role in shaping the bowler’s career, does the former cricketer feature in the Jayprasad Desai-helmed movie? “You’ll have to see the film to find that out,” teases Talpade, adding, “Our promo starts with Dravid’s speech at a press conference, where he spoke highly about Pravin.”
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