Kolkata:
Cricket is serious business in India, as also in Australia. United by the love for the game and transcending the barriers of geography, an Australian film crew is currently in Kolkata, shooting a cricketing comedy.
Save Your Legs is about a group of middle-aged Australians who con their way into playing the game they love in India. The good news for Indians still smarting from the recent Australian whitewash - in the film, the Australians lose every match they play, but win hearts and friends.
Save Your Legs is the Aussie war cry out when a batsman hits a boundary. Though the batsmen that you will see here are no good at hitting fours or sixes, their fantasy is to play the game in India. They manage to make their way here and the film chronicles their comic cricketing and other adventures as they crisscross the subcontinent.
Actor Stephen Curry, who plays a Sachin Tendulkar fan, feels lucky to be a part of the movie as he is a "big Tendulkar fan" in real life also. "I play the president of the Anglers Cricket Club and it's my idea to bring the boys to India and to be a part of a competition which we have no business being part of," he says proudly.
Brendan Cowell, who will also be seen acting in the movie, feels that the cricket in the film is "quite hilarious". "We are actually hopeless, a D-Grade side; so it is quite a farce to watch us running around games, picking the ball from the gutter and from beneath a goat," says he while giving an idea about the contents of the film.
Based on a true story, the film is being shot in Melbourne, Kolkata, Varanasi and Mumbai. The India-end of the shoot is being handled by the same Indian company that helped produce Mission Impossible 4, Eat Pray Love and Slumdog Millionaire.
Boyd Hicklin, the director of the movie, feels that "most of the things in the film happened for real; we get beaten everywhere we go, we get sick and we get treated like kings and fall in love with India."
Actor Pallavi Sharda adds: "What is great about the movie is that it is not one-sided; it's not Australia versus India. It's about the love we all have for cricket and I think anyone will relate to that here."
The crew promises that even if you are the one in a billion Indian who doesn't like cricket, you will still love the film. The taste of the pudding? Before the year is out!