Bollywood hopes to cash in on Cricket World Cup fever
Thursday, March 15, 2007
INDIA'S film industry is to take advantage of World Cup fever to release a pair of cricket-themed movies in the coming weeks, according to production houses here.
With the ninth World Cup underway in the Caribbean, Bollywood is preparing to woo audiences with movies featuring Indian ace-spinner Anil Kumble and well-known cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle.
Bhogle appears as himself in Hat Trick, which is about relationships between people who hold different views about the game.
"Indians are cricket crazy, so we thought it was appropriate to release the movie coinciding with the World Cup," says Hat Trick director Milan Luthria.
"We are completing the shoot for a cricket anthem, which will be used in the movie.
"As a film maker I try and explore different themes and genres. It was time to do a sports-linked story."
Kumble, the lead spinner in the 15-member Indian squad currently touring the Caribbean, plays a cameo role in the soon-to-be-released Meerabai Not Out.
The movie stars popular television actress Mandira Bedi, a surprise star host on a Sony Entertainment cricket television show, who plays an unmarried teacher in her 30s who is passionate about cricket.
"I have given up a glamorous image in the movie," Mandira says. "I am a complete cricket fan as much as others are. People should be able to relate to it."
Sports-linked themes have rarely fared well in Bollywood, although Iqbal, a movie about a mute boy who makes it big in cricket, won rave reviews from critics in 2005.
Other sports-related films scheduled for release in India this year include the big-budget production Chak de! India (Shine on India), which stars Shah Rukh Khan as a dishonoured hockey player who returns to the game after seven years as a coach to the national women's team.
Cycle-kick and Yahan ke hum Sikander (We're the kings here), a movie based on soccer, are also set for release this year.
Meanwhile, a business solutions company in Mumbai has devised a computer model that forecasts cricket scores with apparently astounding success.
The company, Fractal Analytics, scored a major hit by predicting West Indies' underdog victory over Pakistan in the opening game of the World Cup on Tuesday. Amazingly, it even forecast the exact scores of rival captains Brian Lara of the West Indies and Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan.
Fractal Analytics, which specialises in predictive analysis of customer behaviour for clients such as Visa and Citibank, devised the model to forecast cricket results just for fun.
"We started this a few months back and found that the predictions actually came out true," says Mukesh Budania, a consultant with the firm.
"So we decided to be bold and give our predictions to a newspaper a day before the match," he says, adding that he and his colleagues were excited when the predictions turned out true.
The model is based on the theory that the outcome of every game and the performance of every player depends, to a degree, on what the player or the team has done in the past.
To predict which team will win a particular match, the statistics of all one-day internationals played since 1996 are looked at to identify factors that have the maximum impact on the outcome of the match.
Factors found to be relevant include the relative forms of the teams, their recent past record and their performances against each other. AFP
With the ninth World Cup underway in the Caribbean, Bollywood is preparing to woo audiences with movies featuring Indian ace-spinner Anil Kumble and well-known cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle.
Bhogle appears as himself in Hat Trick, which is about relationships between people who hold different views about the game.
"Indians are cricket crazy, so we thought it was appropriate to release the movie coinciding with the World Cup," says Hat Trick director Milan Luthria.
"We are completing the shoot for a cricket anthem, which will be used in the movie.
"As a film maker I try and explore different themes and genres. It was time to do a sports-linked story."
Kumble, the lead spinner in the 15-member Indian squad currently touring the Caribbean, plays a cameo role in the soon-to-be-released Meerabai Not Out.
The movie stars popular television actress Mandira Bedi, a surprise star host on a Sony Entertainment cricket television show, who plays an unmarried teacher in her 30s who is passionate about cricket.
"I have given up a glamorous image in the movie," Mandira says. "I am a complete cricket fan as much as others are. People should be able to relate to it."
Sports-linked themes have rarely fared well in Bollywood, although Iqbal, a movie about a mute boy who makes it big in cricket, won rave reviews from critics in 2005.
Other sports-related films scheduled for release in India this year include the big-budget production Chak de! India (Shine on India), which stars Shah Rukh Khan as a dishonoured hockey player who returns to the game after seven years as a coach to the national women's team.
Cycle-kick and Yahan ke hum Sikander (We're the kings here), a movie based on soccer, are also set for release this year.
Meanwhile, a business solutions company in Mumbai has devised a computer model that forecasts cricket scores with apparently astounding success.
The company, Fractal Analytics, scored a major hit by predicting West Indies' underdog victory over Pakistan in the opening game of the World Cup on Tuesday. Amazingly, it even forecast the exact scores of rival captains Brian Lara of the West Indies and Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan.
Fractal Analytics, which specialises in predictive analysis of customer behaviour for clients such as Visa and Citibank, devised the model to forecast cricket results just for fun.
"We started this a few months back and found that the predictions actually came out true," says Mukesh Budania, a consultant with the firm.
"So we decided to be bold and give our predictions to a newspaper a day before the match," he says, adding that he and his colleagues were excited when the predictions turned out true.
The model is based on the theory that the outcome of every game and the performance of every player depends, to a degree, on what the player or the team has done in the past.
To predict which team will win a particular match, the statistics of all one-day internationals played since 1996 are looked at to identify factors that have the maximum impact on the outcome of the match.
Factors found to be relevant include the relative forms of the teams, their recent past record and their performances against each other. AFP
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