When it comes to filmmaking, sports can be tricky to shoot. There are aficionados who rue about how that straight drive seemed fake or how there are insincere jump cuts between the ball being thrown and the batsman swinging for a six. Enter Dhruv Panjuani, India’s first sports director. Latest on Dhruv’s CV is Ghoomer, the Abhishek Bachchan and Saiyami Kher starrer sports drama, for which he lent his expertise. He also choreographed the cricket for Kabir Khan’s World Cup saga 83. Dhruv hasn’t stuck to just Hindi cinema. From directing a brief football match in the otherwise gangster flick King of Kotha (starring Dulquer Salmaan), he is also the sports action director for Blue Star, a sports drama featuring Ashok Selvan and Shanthanu in the lead. His upcoming project is the Muttiah Muralitharan biopic 800, directed by MS Sripathy.
We speak with Dhruv on crafting a niche profession for himself, the technicalities of sports direction and how he fuses sports with the film’s overarching narrative.
How did you stumble upon something called sports direction?
It was quite a process to make up a profession (laughs). I actually studied filmmaking, post which I started working in the film industry as part of the production team. I initially worked as an assistant director on Ram Madhvani’s Neerja (2016). I also wanted to explore the advertising world and directed some commercials. Incidentally, the first few projects I worked on were football commercials. I remember working for the campaign for ISL (Indian Super League). We had to shoot with eight to nine actual footballers that too in a stadium. I did that project really well with the project team’s support. And that’s when I realised that here was something I could do. So, whenever I came across a sports related project, I tried to get my hands on it. Soon, I had seven to eight commercials related to cricket and football in my bag as a sports choreographer.
And then 83 happened?
Yes. I think Kabir sir (director Kabir Khan) was kind enough to give me an opportunity to work in the direction team and handle the sports department. My work with commercials helped me to focus on what exactly the role required me to do. I closely worked with all the cricketers and the actors in the film.
What all entails in the work of a sports director?
I can be involved in different stages of a sports production like from the scripting to conceptualization to training the actors. To give an example, if we have to show a cricket match in which India is playing, the whole thing can’t be shown. So, we have to focus on certain moments to accelerate the narrative. If India is batting well, which players are doing good? Or, if we are losing, which wickets are falling? We can’t show all wickets going down one by one, so we have to choose which batsman should go out so that it is more impactful for the emotion of the film’s script. Also, the decision has to be taken keeping the authenticity in mind.
Was the work similar then for Ghoomer?
Ghoomer was a bit of an exception. R Balki had completely laid out the script and Saiyami (Kher) needed no training since she already is a cricketer. My job was to give Saiyami whatever she needed to make her performance look as good and as authentic as possible. Like which camera angles to shoot her from? How to design the shots and capture her ‘Ghoomer’ delivery. It was less conceptualization, more execution and understanding Balki’s vision for the film.
I saw your credit as a sports director on King of Kotha, which is essentially a gangster drama. How did you contribute to the film?
There are some football sequences in the film for which the director Abhilash Joshiy needed designing. You know how a particular person will be scoring the goal? Does he need to dodge four people to do it? Is it a passing game? Do we need to show that they are losing at the beginning and then ultimately winning? My responsibility was to detail that out.
Incoming is 800, the biopic of Muttiah Muralitharan, how was it training Madhur Mittal for the film?
Sports training was just a part of it. Our focus was to make Madhurr train for the execution on screen which doesn’t come from a trainer, or a cricketer or a coach. The idea was not to make the actor become the best cricketer in the world but to make him look like he's the best cricketer on screen. It was all about authenticity.
So, in your opinion, in which films, regional or foreign, there has been an authentic depiction of sports?
This is a tough one. I have been a fan of Lagaan (2001), in terms of how the cricket went well with the drama. Rocky (1976) is an all-time classic. I also like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) and Dangal (2016), in terms of how tastefully sports have been depicted in these films.