With loads of help from Hollywood’s well-known sports action director

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Sports movies are not common in Bollywood, and the few that are made, feature some really badly choreographed sports sequences. So when Shimit Amin announced he will be making a sports film, that too one on a tricky game like hockey, no one expected slickly choreographed hockey match sequences that inspired awe and not laughter. But when you watch the movie on YouTube Boxoffice, you’ll see that’s what they got, and all thanks to Shimit’s decision to rope in Robert Miller, the CEO of US-based firm ReelSports. While former Indian hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi helped coach for the actors, Miller’s task was to ensure the game, locker room and practice sequences were as technically correct as possible. In an interview to an American newspaper, Robert, who choreographed the ice hockey sequences in the 1980 Hollywood film Miracle, said that when he received his first phone call from Shimit, he never thought it would actually materialise, leave alone become something so big. And he never expected to shoot in two months of monsoon either. “There is a big difference between being a tourist and trying to accomplish something on a timetable,” Miller told the newspaper. But that’s what the crew did and the end result is really spectacular. Don’t you agree?

This article was first published in BollywoodLife.com (20 October 2011).
Original story

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