The stuff dreams are made of, right? But Hurman S Baweja got to live this dream! Playing a cricketer in Victory was everything that Hurman could have hoped for and more. Says the actor, “It was unreal for me, facing these world class cricketers who you’ve only seen on TV...”And although Hurman didn’t get the chance to work with Sachin Tendulkar whom he idolises, he had a ball working with the others! “Bhajji — I really looked forward to working with; Brett is a nice guy, very chilled out, he didn’t whine about retakes. He told me it’s easier playing a Test match than shooting the whole day,” laughed Hurman. Shooting with these cricketers was fun but when it came to actual cricket, it was a different ball game altogether. Did anyone get him out for a duck?
“Brett could not and none of the Pakistani bowlers as well. But, yes, Chaminda Vas and Brad Hogg did get me out on duck.”
The story of a small town boy making it big in the Indian cricket team makes one think of Yuvraj Singh or Mahendra Singh Dhoni, any inspiration there? “One will draw similarities because it’s a very realistic film, but Vijay Singh Shekhawat is a completely fictional character,” said Hurman. Director Ajitpal Mangat and Hurman had great connection when it came to getting the actor into the skin of the character.
Training required him to leave his acting shoes behind and don a cricketer’s garb and Hurman wanted to do that with the right body language. He trained under Pravin Amre, who was Team India coach in the 90s and who even worked with Tendulkar. “After 15 days of shadow batting, one arm drills, two arm drills, back lifts, that I was allowed to touch the bat finally. After that, I would face the bowlers for almost two hours continuously, playing 40 to 50 overs every day. Then we started recording my performance and comparing every posture and move with Sachin’s. I wanted to get as close to Sachin as possible in body language,” recalled Hurman about the four month training period. And the biggest compliment he received from Amre? “He told me he wished I had joined a few years earlier as a cricketer!”
That might have been Hurman’s special day in his short-lived cricket career, but it’s certainly his big day tomorrow as an actor with Victory releasing. “It’s my first premiere at home because I was in London when my first film had released, so I'm superbly excited,” he said, adding that it will be a mini re-union of sorts because not only are there celebrities expected from the film world for the premiere, but there will also be Bhajji, R P Singh, Ramesh Pawar, Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar and Chaminda Vas attending the show! Now that’s quite a victory for Hurman we say!
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