From correspondents in Karnataka, India, 09:31 AM IST
Though the desi sport of kabaddi has won many medals for the country at international sporting events, the game has never been adequately represented in cinema. Now, Kannada film director Narendra Babu has just wrapped up a film revolving around it, titled 'Kabaddi'.
Babu says the high point of the movie is that most of the actors, including the main leads, have been associated with the game at some point of time in their lives.
Praveen, who plays male lead, had represented the national level team, while female lead Priyanka Naidu had represented the Karnataka state team.
'Nearly 40 players who have represented the national kabaddi team at one time or the other have been roped in to play different roles in the movie. Many kabaddi players have been featured in the games that are shown on the screen. These games are part of the script written by me. We have spent nearly Rs.2 million to shoot the game,' Narendra Babu told IANS.
The film is made at a budget of Rs.18.5 million (Rs.1.8 crore).
'The film has taken more than 18 months to complete. The film has shaped up so well that even conventional film producers and distributors are inquiring about it to buy the distribution rights of the film,' Babu said.
Sandesh Nagaraj, one of the well-known producers in the industry, is so keen to buy the distribution rights that he offered to pay Rs.500,000 extra to each of the investor of the film, he said.
He added that actor Avinash was so pleased with the film that he refused to take his entire fee.
'I am really happy about the way the director has conceived this project. Kabaddi is my favourite sport and I want everyone to understand its importance. As an artist it is my moral responsibility to help out such challenging efforts,' Avinash said.
Producer Ravi, a kabaddi player himself, said though the national level tournaments of the game are being held prominently in many places in the state, only a few Kannada films had sequences featuring the game.
'Our film is fully kabaddi-centric and the thrills and frills of the game are adequately presented in the film,' he said.
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Convert cricket playgrounds into ones for playing only Kabaddi and other indigenous, muslce-building games, and see whether young boys come to learn and play ancient Indian sports.
It is important that indigenous games such as Kabaddi get popularized and resurrected from the "rural" colour it has acquired, making urban youth reluctant to practise it. Kabaddi calls for tactical skills which can outweigh mere physical ones. These can be developed among our youth who have resigned absurdly to cricket. A nation cannot register real growth with youth that does not discriminate between what can make our society strong and vibrant from what is wasteful of time, the greatest resource during youth. Agreed, this is not going to be easy since too many vested interests have combined to kill indigenous sports except as a shabby show before foreign visitors.
Kannada film "kabaddi" is a fine initiative. Techniques of conducting sudden raids, intelligent infiltration in the rival camps and quick breath-stopping catch-cum lift experts will have a great opportunity to popularize our ancient sport. Lovers of sports and games world wide will enjoy the fabulous Indian treat. Best wishes.
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