A Pollywood's attempt to redefine the forgotten sport of Hockey
Rohit Jugraj, a renowned director in both Punjabi and Bollywood film industry is bringing up a topic that is a sheer bold move for Pollywood. His film, 'Khido Khundi' is coming in theatres on 2nd March, 2018 and seems like the whole cast and crew has put in umpteen efforts for the success of the movie. On Friday, the whole cast and crew was present in Chandigarh for the poster launch and media interaction of 'Khido Khundi'.
The movie has Ranjit Bawa and Mandy Takhar in lead roles along with Manav Vij, Guggi Gill and Naaz Norouzi and real hockey players putting up in teams of England and Sansarpur. The story revolves around the small village of Sansarpur in Punjab that has produced 14 Olympians in the hockey world till now. The film has got Sandeep Singh, former Indian Hockey team captain, Arjun awardee Col Balbir Singh Kular and Olympian Varinder Singh on board for training to the cast of the film. The tagline, 'When game becomes family' is an intriguing one and sure to set the minds of the audiences in the positive direction. In Rohit Jugraj's words, "When I planned the storyline and discussed with many leading people in the industry, their reaction was, 'Who watches the game?' and that hurt me. Like no one is interested in knowing what this national sport is meant to be? So, that made up my mind that this film has to come out, so that people know more about this sport."
Khido Khundi, the title of the film that means ball and stick in Punjabi would showcase a family uniting for the love of the game and has a story set in contemporary times in amalgamation with a lot of real stories. According to the Jugraj, "If we showcased more of history, we are sure the youth would have turned a blind eye towards the movie but now with a fictional story set in Sansarpur, I am sure youngsters would love it and understand the game more." Sandeep Singh trained Ranjit Bawa for months for his character in the game and the physique which was quite a hard training but Bawa being serious for his work did not once refrain from the hardships. Col. Balbir Singh Kular had an interesting insight to it, "For the first time when I saw Ranjit Bawa playing on the field, his perfection in the game was such of a professional that I thought him to be a player. When I enquired about him, I got to know that he is the actor in the movie and is being trained by Sandeep Singh. As a National Selector, I know I would have added him to the hockey team for sure!"
