Madhur Mittal won the dance reality show Boogie Woogie in 1997 when he was just 10. At 21, this Agra guy had made his debut in a British film that was the talk of the whole world — Slumdog Millionaire ’s Salim Malik made people sit up and take note. But Madhur has definitely not waltzed his way through his career. After the Oscar win for Slumdog Millionaire , Madhur bagged a few more roles in international television shows such as Kidnap And Ransom and Treasure Island . But last year when he received a call from the makers of Million Dollar Arm , asking him to audition for a part, Madhur got hopeful. “I’ve had to work real hard. It’s not been easy. For this role, I had three rounds of auditions. See, some roles you miss out on because you don’t fit the age bracket. That’s a decisive factor,” says the actor modestly. A few months and many sleepless nights later, Madhur got the news that he was cast as pitcher Dinesh Patel.
Million Dollar Arm Disney-UTV’s biographical sports drama is directed by Craig Gillespie and also stars Life of Pi star Suraj Sharma and John Hamm. It recounts the true anonymity-to-popularity story of baseball pitchers Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, who were discovered via a reality show in India by American sports agent J.B. Bernstein. The film’s music is composed by A.R. Rahman and it is releasing in India on May 9, a week before its global release. A major portion of the film has been shot across various parts of India.
Training for the role took out the juice of the actor as it required not just physically looking like a fit baseball pitcher but also getting the pitching right. “We used to train for baseball more than anything else! I can humbly say I can manage a good 75-76 kmph now. Also the physical training for the role was tremendous because we had to look like baseball players,” he says. Dinesh comes across as demure, reserving his aggression perhaps for the game alone. That seems a far cry from Madhur’s earlier act as Salim where he had to mix more of black with the white. “As an actor, every character is challenging. Anything that gets your motor running is great fun,” he says.
Madhur says that “hanging out with Dinesh” was a good training ground for him. “I could mirror his mannerisms and understand him better, which helped me play out the character,” he says. Asked if the real Dinesh liked the reel version, he says, “I don’t know if he’s seen it yet! But the thing about Dinesh is that he is so nice that even if he’d find anything not to his liking, he wouldn’t say it,” he says.
