Becoming Kapil Dev wasn't easy for Ranveer Singh but he played cricket for "4 hours a day for 6 months" to transform for his role in Kabir Khan's '83. The actor features as Kapil Dev, who was the captain of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning team, in the film. Talking about how he managed to deliver nearly-perfect bowling like Kapil Dev in the film, Ranveer Singh said: "He has a very unique bowling action and his bio-mechanics are very unique to him. My body is very different from his so I had to transform my physicality drastically in order to achieve it. It took a long time, in fact, months to perfect the action," reported news agency ANI.
Ranveer had started shooting for '83 after finishing the schedule of his 2018 film Simbba. He played the role of a cop in the Rohit Shetty-directed film. The transformation from a cop to Kapil Dev took Ranveer Singh several months. Former cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu, one of the legends of the 83-world cup, used to coach Ranveer during that period.
The actor was quoted as saying by ANI: "Initially, my body was too heavy because I was coming off of the shoot of Simmba. Our coach noticed that my body was too heavy and he said, Jab tu run-up mein aata hai toh tu aisa lagta hai ki pehelwan bowling karne aa raha hai.' And he sent me away for a month just to change my physicality to bring it closer to Kapil's athleticism and then once I did that, I started making some headway."
Ranveer Singh practiced for several hours per day to achieve perfection in bowling like Kapil Dev. "I was playing cricket for 4 hours a day for 6 months and doing physical conditioning for 2 hours a day for those 6 months. Four months of prep and 2-3 months of shoot, I put in a lot of hours," he said, reported ANI.
During his transformation, Ranveer Singh also suffered injuries but that didn't stop him from practicing rigorously. He said: "There were a few injuries along the way but it was very important for me to crack his action because it is an iconic bowling action and all his admirers will be looking out for whether I did it right or not. More importantly for him to feel that I got it right and for me to feel that I got it right and for it just spot on in the film and I had to put in the work but it was very fulfilling" and hilariously added: "At the end of the process, I have become a decent enough bowler also," reported ANI.
Ranveer Singh used to practice under the guidance of Balwinder Singh Sandhu and producer. Sometimes, Kapil Dev also used to offer his inputs on the pitch.
Earlier, in an interview with ANI, Kapil Dev called Ranveer Singh "a great actor" and added: "I don't think he needs any inputs or any help. He just spent time with me and rest he is smart enough."
'83 also stars Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Jatin Sarna, Chirag Patil, Dinker Sharma, Nishant Dahiya, Sahil Khattar, Ammy Virk, Harrdy Sandhu, Addinath Kothare, Dhairya Karwa, R Badree and Pankaj Tripathi, among others.
The film features Ranveer's wife and actress Deepika Padukone as Romi, Kapil Dev's wife.
'83 will hit the theatres on December 24 in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.