Picture this… the glam babe Celina Jaitley dancing on a picturesque beach with …. hold your breath.. Indian Cricketer Ajay Jadeja… remember? The Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley starrer ‘Khel’ introduced Ajay Jadeja to the glam world in a big way, though the film bombed at the box office. This and many more such films have given a chance for the pin-up boys of the gentleman’s game to make a debut on the big screen. So, is it the money or the fame that draws the darlings of cricket to the tinsel town? … Let’s figure it out!
The journey made by some of the big and some not-so big cricketers into the film arena has been more of a sorry affair as they tasted failure in majority cases. The trend of cricketers trying their hand at films is not a new one. One of the greatest cricketing giants, Sunil Gavaskar made a brief appearance in a Hindi film ‘Malamaal’ and a Marathi film ‘Savli Premachi’, both failing at the box office. Moving on, there were other famous cricketers joining the trend like Sandeep Patil and Syed Kirmani making a special appearance for the Bollywood flick ‘Ek Ajnabee’ which again was a flop venture in 1985. Another cricketer, world cup winning captain of the Indian team, Kapil Dev has played his real self in quite a few films including some of the recent ones like Stumped, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Iqbal, Aryan and a forthcoming release of 2007, ‘Dillagi… Yeh Dillagi’.
As it is evident, cricketers’ tryst with Bollywood has not been a successful one. With cricketers generally playing their real selves in the films, didn’t get much to offer in their short roles. Cricketers like Ajay Jadeja and Vinod Kambli played some significant roles as well. Kambli made his Bollywood debut in Suniel Shetty starrer ‘Annarth’. Even then such full-fledged roles could not change the fortunes for these cricketers in the film industry. No matter how famous a cricketer is, the films fell flat at the ticket window.