Directed by Kabir Khan, '83 narrates the story of India's first-ever cricket World Cup victory in 1983. In the movie, Ranveer Singh stars as the then skipper Kapil Dev while Deepika Padukone plays Kapil's wife Romi Dev. The film also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Saqib Saleem, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Harrdy Sandhu, Ammy Virk, Jiiva, Sahil Khattar, Chirag Patil and Adinath Kothare in key roles.
In an interview with a leading daily, Kabir recently revealed that it took him more than one-and-a-half years to write the script because of so many anecdotes from the players. “I had 100 fantastic stories and I could pick only 25 from the mountain of material I had with me. That’s the reason it took me close to a year-and-a-half to finalise the script,” he said, adding, "The film is not just from the players’ point of view, but also that of the commentators and the spectators. There are several layers.”
Citing one such example. Kabir said that Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who had tied the knot just three months before the World Cup, had booked tickets for a US holiday, along with six other players, as they were convinced that the team wouldn’t make it past the group stage of the tournament. However, it was encouragement and motivation by Captain Kapil Dev as the players progressed towards the finals, and then, all of them started cancelling their tickets one-by-one. Kabir further added that Indian cricket team’s world cup win is the ‘greatest underdog story ever’.
Meanwhile, there were recent reports that '83 will go straight to an OTT platform before theatrical release. However. Reliance Entertainment Group CEO Shibashish Sarkar, denied the news and said, “There is no truth in this. We will first complete the film then we will wait. If six or nine months down the line the situation becomes much worse we will take a call at that time. There is no hurry."
