“Goal celebrates Asian unity”

He missed out on the special preview of Om Shanti Om which his wife Pallavi Joshi, kids and buddy Arshad Warsi “enjoyed thoroughly”. But Vivek Agnihotri isn’t complaining, he’s been busy with the edit and mixing of his about-to-release second film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, a film that stems from his small-town insecurities,”I am from Bhopal and as a child I have kicked a football with great gusto and batted in the gully with all my might knowing well that there is no future for me in it,” he sighs. “Untill five years ago football and cricket were meant for the big city dwellers - sportmen from smaller towns are emerging only recently. DDDG translates those small-town aspirations on to the big screen.”

DDDG is also inspired by the real- life tragedy of 1958 air-crash in which the entire Manchester United team perished and their heartbroken coach raised another team that went on to lift the World Cup. “The story of triumph of human spirit left an indelible mark on me during my college days. When I narrated my script to Ronnie Screwvala of UTV, he agreed to back the project right away and that was even before Chak De!” adds Agnihotri spiritedly.

Set in Southall, UK, DDDG is the story about Asian unity. “These are a bunch of Asian players from the lower strata. They are the members of the Southall team which is in no competition with anybody. They are a motley group of gully players who get together for beer, kick the ball. But circumstances compel them to play a match that will help them retain their residency in UK,” elaborates Agnihotri. This is the only film in which you see the flags of India, Pakistan and Dhaka flying together. “It is my conviction that Asian unity like South Asian and Europe unity can really work wonders,” he observes. Arshad Warsi who leads the rag-tag team is a Paki while Deboshish is a Bangladeshi and John Abraham represents the second generation NRIs. “Goal celebrates Asian unity,” declares Agnihotri. But this is not with an eye on the neighbouring countries audience, he argues, that they watch “our films in any case”.

The director has chosen to shoot the film in the severest of London winters because to his mind, “London is murky, cloudy and overcast”. In persuit of his vision, he didn’t mind working in the chilliest of weathers, all bleary-eyed and runny-nosed!

As for the inevitable comparison with Chak De! India, the maker bristles defiantly, “Both Om Shanti Om and Saawariya are love stories but you would still watch both because a film is driven by its characters and their journey. Five minute into DDDG and the viewers will know this is a different film altoghether. While Chak De! is the story of the coach, ours is about the team that rises from zilch.”

Agnihotri likens Arshad’s stocky built and play with Maradona but he isn’t calling John the Indian Beckham. “John has been a soccer player and Arshad learnt to play the game for three months before the shoot. By the end of it, he started playing so well that he reminded me of Maradonna - falling, rising and winning,” reasons Agnihotri.

Bipasha Basu qualified for the part of the team’s physiotherapist because of her “sporty look” while Boman Irani with his versatility made it to the team roster.

DDDG seems so much of a guy flick. “The emotion of victory has a universal resonance. The film is about guys but you can watch it even with your grandmother and come out thoroughly entertained,” assures the maker.

He is all praise for the producers UTV and rubbishes all the “fictional reports” about tiffs between John, Bipasha and Arshad, “The budget allocation was not star driven but what the movie required. There are 12 teams playing in the film and their gear is all custom-made. It is a huge venture,” he says. He kept one jersey and football of each of the 12 teams playing in the film and now he’s back with a roomful of soccer memorabilia that he could launch a soccer museum of his own.

Pritam’s unusual folksy music is working out to be a bonus for the film. The film is up for release and Agnihotri is already thinking ahead for his next film for UTV, “I want to make a film about global warming with a Harry Potter-esque hillarity about it. I want to get the message across to the younger lot without sounding too serious about it. It has to be entertaining,” he points out.

His directorial debut Chocolate turned out to be a bitter one. But we hope that with his second kick out he scores a goal at the box-office. Because success is the only operative term in Bollywood.

Source: screenindia.com