New Delhi: She played a swashbuckling heroine smashing sixes out of the cricket field in her last film 'Dil Bole Hadippa' and now actress Rani Mukherjee has turned spokesperson for the cause of women cricketers.
The Bollywood actress who launched the first sports docu-drama on women cricketers, 'Poor Cousins of Million Dollar Babies' here, said that cricket is wrongly termed a 'gentleman's game'.
"Since childhood, girls are always discouraged from playing sports and are told that cricket is a gentleman's game, which is incorrect. Learning it for the film made me realise what a beautiful game cricket is. It is about technique, not power," Rani told reporters here.
The 25-minute-film directed by Sunil Yash Kalra features members of the national women's cricket team of India, over a period of 4 years and focus on their lives on and off the pitch.
"I know girls from humble backgrounds that join the sport for the love of it. That inspired me to do 'Dil Bole Hadippa' as I got an opportunity to play a game, I didn't understand previously," Rani added.
The docu-drama sees the protagonists, cricketer Anjum Chopra and captain Jhulan Goswami, along with other members of the team, facing disparities and discrimination but fulfilling their long cherished dream of playing at Lord's cricket ground in London.
"We were working on a book when I saw a poster of WG Grace's mother, who was the propagator of women's cricket and we thought we'll do a film as well. The movie is not just a tale of disparities among men and women in the cricketing arena, but a story of the triumph of women's cricket despite the disparities that prevail," said Kalra.
The poster of the movie was unveiled by writer Jaideep Sahni of 'Chak De' fame, along with Rani, Anjum Chopra and Minister of State for Commerce, Jyotiraditya Scindia. PTI
