Chak De! India
Short description
Kabir Khan, a former captain of the Indian men's hockey team, carries the weight of a national disgrace after his side lost a decisive match years earlier and he was accused of deliberately throwing it. Unable to escape that accusation, he takes on a role nobody else wants: coach of the Indian women's national field hockey team. The players come from different regions and backgrounds, and each has her own reasons for being there, but they share neither unity nor respect for their new coach.
Shimit Amin directed the film from a screenplay by Jaideep Sahni, with Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra producing for Yash Raj Films. Shah Rukh Khan plays Kabir Khan, heading a credited cast of twenty-seven that includes Vidya Malvade, Sagarika Ghatge, Shilpa Shukla, Chitrashi Rawat and Tanya Abrol. Made for a budget of about six million dollars, the film took roughly forty million dollars worldwide, a strong return for an Indian sports drama. On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from more than eighty-three thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from around four hundred. A critics' rating of 7.3 from eighteen reviews places it close to the audience scores. Released in August 2007 and running 148 minutes, it was shot partly in Australia and India.
What's left behind the scenes
- The main idea for the screenplay came to Jaideep Sahni one day while he was flipping through a newspaper and happened upon a small note about a women's hockey team. Following this, he met and spoke with Mir Ranjan Negi, who had also been blamed in his time for the Indian national team's loss to Pakistan at the 1982 Summer Asian Games.
- The actresses in the film spent 3-4 months learning how to play field hockey to look authentic on screen.
- The search for 16 actresses to play the hockey players took over six months.
- The film sparked an interest in field hockey across the entire country. In the few days following its release, sales of hockey sticks soared by 30%.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
