Jhund: All you need to know about Vijay Barse, inspiration behind Amitabh Bachchan-Nagraj Manjule film

Amitabh Bachchan and director Nagraj Manjule's first collaboration, the sports drama Jhund, is out in cinemas as of today. The film, which sees Bachchan play a soccer coach, takes inspiration from a real-life figure — Vijay Barse.

Who is Vijay Barse?

Barse is a social worker and founder of Slum Soccer, an organisation that uplifts underprivilegaed children by training them in the sport. 

He once appeared on an episode of Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate, and shared an anecdote while working as a sports teacher at a Nagpur college, he saw children kicking around a broken bucket in the rain. After seeing this, he gifted them a football to play with instead. 

"I realised that these kids were away from bad habits as long as they were playing on the field. What else can a teacher give?," Barse told the actor on the episode. 

Watch the episode here:

Slum Soccer began as Zopadpatti Football in 2002, and in a TED talk explained the reason behind the name: "I knew that all players came from living in zopadpatti (slums), and I have to work for them only so I must continue this name."

In an interview with The Indian Express, Barse spoke about how his intent is to promote development through the sport: "I am a sports teacher. But I am not promoting the development of football. I am promoting development through football."

Watch the talk here:

Barse's efforts have been chronicled far and wide in the news, and the film has only honoured his legacy for posterity. 

Barse's reaction to Jhund:

Before the release of the film, Barse told ETimes that Jhund has captured the emotions, and even the narrow bylanes of Nagpur well. He said that it was "heartening" to watch his students also be a part of the story. 

He recently tweeted his reaction and said that he had never imagined his story would reach such a wide audience one day.

Here is the tweet: