The Texcity grounds near VOC stadium has turned into a shooting set for Kannan and his crew. Eleven players chase a ball. A mid-field player passes the ball. He is blocked by his opponent. But he dodges and rushes ahead to throw the ball to the striker. “Hey, defend properly da , don’t think of the camera,” shouts Kannan. The scene wraps up and the crew gets ready for another free-kick shot.
Kannan, a mechanical engineering student of Kumaraguru College of Technology, is making a music video on the Coimbatore football culture. He plans to release it on June 12, when the world readies itself to watch FIFA 2014. “I do not play football. But, I am passionate about the game. This is a tribute to all the football lovers.”
Kannan says his college friends are die-hard football fans. “We are addicted to the FIFA video games series. That’s how we learnt the rules of this game. It is our biggest stress buster,” he says.
The video features dancers, too. Srinivasan who is the choreographer says that football is a game with a rhythm. “It is a dance in itself. The video is choreographed to the song The world is ours by David Correy.”
“Football is all about passion. You do not always have to be a player to enjoy it. I wanted to bring out this spirit through the video,” says Kannan.
“We asked friends to enact as mechanics, slum children and college students. They did not mind the sun or the heat. By the end of the shoot, they were so engrossed in the game that they forgot about the camera. One guy even thanked me for giving him an opportunity to play football for three hours at a stretch!”
But, shooting the game was tough, he says. “It is not like shooting a normal running game. We are fixing the game and actually choreographing the players’ moves. So it is a task to make them look natural and excited.” Finding a ground was also not a cake walk. “There so many football teams in the city. There are good grounds too. But we were not allowed entry, there.” The video was shot at residential colonies, roadsides and mechanic sheds. “These are the places where real football is happening in the city,” says Kannan.
