Exclusive! Coach Rajiv Mehra: It was challenging to train Ranveer for 83 as he never played cricket before

When you watch a cricket match on your television sets, you do not realise the efforts of the players that go behind the game. The film 83, starring Ranveer Singh, which is based on India's World Cup win chronicles not just that historic match but also the journey of the players on the team, led by Kapil Dev in 1983. And, portraying that on the big screen was not a piece of cake. The actors went through rigorous training for close to a year trying to grasp the skills, mannerisms, body language, and nuances of each player they are portraying. They were trained by Balwinder Sandhu, who was part of that epic team that got us our first World Cup along with other players on the team. Sandhu was assisted by the celebrity cricket and fitness coach Rajiv Mehra. In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Mehra talks about all that went behind the scene to transform the actors into cricketers of that era, the homework he assigned to them, how they took a few weeks to understand and get used to the training regime and a lot more.

Excerpts:

At a very young age, you got the opportunity to coach Mumbai U16 Probables and now the Bollywood celebs and cast of 83 along with Mr Balwinder from the world cup team of 83. How does that feel?

You have learned a certain skill, invested time and effort in understanding the subject. It is something you dream of when you get to apply them to benefit people. It's huge to be able to help these actors, to train Ranveer Singh and others for 83, which is an iconic moment in the history of Indian cricket. It is a historic moment for India as well. It is a dream run for me to be able to be a part of the project.

What were your responsibilities and how was the experience training them with Mr Balwinder?

Balwinder got me in for this project. He told me he has this movie and would like me to assist him in training the actors. This is all I knew when I started. A few weeks later, I realised how big the project is and the people involved. My major responsibility was to make these actors perform like cricketers, look like them and get them through the entire process of the shoot without any injury. At the same time, there was huge pressure as they are presenting these legendary players from the world cup team. The responsibility was huge.

Many actors in the team, I believe, do have some experience in cricket. So, was it challenging to train them?

It was a big task. Only Hardy was the one who has played cricket at first level. Saqib has played a lot of cricket too. Other than these two, none of them were accustomed to playing cricket or were technically sound per se. It was a huge challenge to get them to learn the body language and skills of cricketers.

You undertake mental training activities while coaching. How important are they in the regime? How did you inculcate that while training the actors?

It is very important. It was a big challenge. Ballu sir has lived those experiences. He had a visual presentation in his memory and he was the one who was giving important details about the nuances and habits of every player. I took note of it and taught the actors. He did a great job refreshing his memory and getting minute detail of every player he has played with. He kept giving constant inputs and feedback to each player, saying "Is time pe Mohinder aise khelta tha. Sunil Gavaskar had a certain way of standing on the field."

Mental training was a very important aspect while preparing them for this role. There is a technique. It is very underrated but has a long impact on your performance. When you try to achieve something, start visualising it. The picture has to be clear in your head, even with your eyes closed and that will help you perform. I used to give homework to the actors. I would ask them to visualise the character in their head with eyes closed and to do mirror practice. When you do movements in front of a mirror, you get real-time feedback and you can do a real-time correction.

How long was the training programme?

Training started in September 2018. The first training session was for 5, 6 months in Mumbai. We then had a 20-day boot camp in Dharamshala, followed by another month of training in Mumbai. We left for the shoot in June 2019 and shot for 4 to 5 months. The practice never stopped. Even during the off days, we would practice.

Which actor was the toughest to train?

The toughest to train in terms of physical fitness was Ammy because he had this flamboyance and sort of Sikh arrogance, "Mujhe sab aata hai, mujhe nahi karna" kind of attitude but he was very focused on his own thing. So to get him to do something was slightly challenging but he has a natural ability to adapt very fast. He didn't train a lot but his execution was spot-on. That was the best part about it.

As far as skill coaching is concerned, it was difficult to train all the actors. As I mentioned before, not everyone had a background in cricket. It was very challenging to train Dhairya who is playing Ravi Shastri in the movie. Dhairya is a right-handed person and he had to play a left-handed cricketer. For a right-handed person, executing skills with the left arm was very challenging. He did it with a lot of practice. The orientation, coordination in your body change. It is very difficult to even hold a pen or a ball with the left hand if we are naturally right-handed. Yet, to replicate that entire action with the left hand was challenging but with discipline and inputs he got through me and Ballu sir, he accepted it very well and did them.

Ranveer too. He was bulked up when he came for 83 preps. He came after Simmba where he played the role of a cop. For us to get him to think like a cricketer and move like an athlete and portray someone who has been on the ground forever, get him to lose the weight, lose the muscle, work on running and walking technique, the bowling action of Kapil Dev and the nuances he has, it was very challenging.

Which actor was easier to train?

Hardy was a breeze. He is a first-class cricketer himself. He has played for the Ranji trophy. He just needed fine-tuning. He had done his homework and was ready from day one.

You are a certified personal trainer from American College for Sports Medicine too. Did you have to make any change to the regular fitness regime of any of the actors to suit the character?

For an actor, it is always about aesthetics and the way they look on screen, very rarely, it is about physical performance. You see it only in sports and athletic performances. So it was new for them. They had to understand what changes to apply in day-to-day life to be aesthetically fit, not just athletically fit. That is something we had to work on in a very detailed way. So regular weight training and gym exercises were out of the window. It was more about outdoor exercises. It was running and ensuring injury prevention. They had to come out every day and perform, not only on that one day of the shoot. When a player jumps and lands on his left leg while bowling, his leg takes about six times his body weight. That's the impact on the leg when a bowler is throwing a ball. So even on the ball can injure the player and that would mean a break for weeks or even a couple of months, depending on the severity of the injury.

So we had to put the actors on prehab training, which is to foresee injury and prevent it. Every cricketer had a different prehab training routine since they had to perform different actions. That's the approach we had. If you are a batsman, your shoulders drop and you lunge when you hit the ball. So we had to focus on and train the actors. It took a few weeks for them to understand and accept it. When we used to give them even 30-minute warm-up exercises, they would be like why are you wasting our time. That's the kind of attitude they had. But they then realised that prehab training is what is keeping them afloat and injury-free. So, for them to think like sportsmen and understand the importance of these exercises was a challenge.