Writer-producer-director Sudhanshu Sharma is coming up with a film on badminton titled Love-All. The film stars Kay Kay Menon, Swastika Mukherjee, Shriswara and many national and international badminton players. It is slated to release worldwide in theatres on August 25. The Free Press Journal caught up with Sudhanshu for an exclusive interaction.
The game of badminton begins with the term ‘love-all’, which means zero. When asked about the film’s interesting title, Sudhanshu shares, “It was a huge challenge for me as people felt it carried a different meaning. But I am sure after watching the film, they will understand why this title. This is the term of the game.”
He further elaborates, “When the game begins, we start with it. We have also given a feel that through sports, we learn to begin again after failing or after things come to an end. In your life, if you lose you can restart. Sport doesn’t only teach you to hail medals. You can begin with a fresh match after winning or losing. Every game is new.”
When asked how essential music is in a sports-based film, he says, “Our film has a strong place of music and we have a total number of five songs. One is a proper training song sung by Sonu Nigam. In this song, we have also used the sounds from badminton. Chal utth jhat pat thak mat. The lyrics have been penned by my sister Sonal Sharma. She has also written the film’s dialogues along with me.”
He avers, "Music has a big role which connects to sport. I would like to state a sport is a musical game and sport has a rhythm in itself. Any sportsman moves ahead in the musical rhythm. Thus sport and music have a deep relationship, which is far away from this materialistic world. Whenever any individual plays a sport he/she never thinks about any business and music also doesn’t relate to business but comes from the heart. Both sport and music have a wonderful and unique relationship. A sports film cannot be devoid of music."
He adds, “Another philosophical song Gili si subah is trending now. It has been sung by Papon and used in the opening credits. Zubin has sung a romantic song Baton baton mein. A school prayer Saahas do has been sung by school children. It is a concept from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali. The last song is Love all bol de based on the philosophy that we need to restart afresh.”
The film is clashing at the box office with Dream Girl 2. Plus, there is another sports-based film Gho-omer that is being released a week prior to Love-All. “Yes it is clashing with Dream Girl 2. I feel Ghoomer being a sports film will help promote my film. If a good sport film releases before us, our audiences will have more faith in our sport film as well. If audiences are inspired by a sports film they will definitely flock in to watch our film as well. Hamein bhi faida milega,” Sudhanshu avers.
The film also showcases father son relationship in the film. "Father-son relationship seems to be untouched. Mother-son relationships are very common. Father-son relationships don't show his love so this emotion attracts many people. So, we chose a father-son relationship."
Shahid Kapoor’s film titled Jersey was a cricket-based film and had showcased a father-son relationship. However, it failed miserably at the box office. The director remains unfazed. "Every relationship has its own importance. I think the presentation of the story should hit the hearts of the audiences. Theatre release of sport films which is devoid of glitz and glamour need support from the audiences. Only then the grievance of the audiences that good films aren’t made will not be heard. In this film, we have taken care of all the emotions. (Mahesh) Bhatt saab has compared our film to Saaransh (1984). Our film is not made with a huge budget of Rs 200/300 crores. Our film is made with Rs 8/9 crores only."
Lastly, he reveals why he cast Kay Kay as the protagonist. “This is the first sports film of Kay Kay Menon. He was my first choice because of his physique and he is undoubtedly a great performer. Luckily, when I narrated the story he agreed to come on board immediately,” he concludes.
