Ajay Devgn starrer ‘Maidaan’ set to release on August 13th, 2021

by Rounak Majumdar July 4, 2020

Many of us have only heard about the glorious history of Indian football. Starting from the revolutionary 1911 match in between Mohun Bagan and East Yorkshire Regiment to the 1962 Asian Games Gold title, Indian football has a boastful past.

With the advent of commercialisation in sports during the past 25 years in India, sports films have taken the world by the tail. Starting from ‘Lagaan’ to ‘Chak De India’, the amalgamation of sports and the entertainment industry has always borne the fruits.

India as a country is keen to consume entertaining content, which the IPL has revealed. The extravaganza of the pre-tournament marketing strategies, to the glitz and glamour of the event and then the post-tournament happenings, it has become an advertiser’s dream. Building on it, the new trend of making web series, short films on social media and cinemas related to sport events has made a huge impact on the games in terms of gaining engagement and new fanatics.

Renowned Bollywood Actor, Director & Producer Mr Ajay Devgn has confirmed the date of release for his new sports-drama ‘Maidaan’ on 21st August 2020.

The film which dwells deep into the glorious years of Indian football in the 1950s will see Mr Devgn taking up the role of the late legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim. Under Rahim’s guidance, the national team bagged the coveted Asian Games beating South Korea. The story of the final triumph in itself is amusing. A day before the final in Asian Games football event, the Indian Team locked horns against the Pakistan Team in the final of the Asian Games Hockey event. India lost that match, but to everyone’s surprise, the Pakistan team came to cheer the Indian football team the next day in the Final.

The team which won the 1962 Asian Games Gold consisted D.M.K Afzal, Tulsidas Balaram, Pradip Kumar Banerjee, Prodyut Barman, O. Chandrashekhar Menon, Ram Bahadur Chhetri, D.E Ethiraj, Fortunata A. Franco, Arun Ghosh, Chuni Goswami, Yousuf Khan, Arumai Nayagam, Jarnail Singh, Trilok Singh, Prashanta Singh and Peter Thangaraj.

2021 Independence week. An untold story that will make every Indian proud. 13th August mark the date. #Maidaan2021@priyamani6 @raogajraj @BoneyKapoor @iAmitRSharma @freshlimefilms @SaiwynQ @ActorRudranil @writish @saregamaglobal @ZeeStudios_ @ZeeStudiosInt pic.twitter.com/we6JPgu2Ui

— Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) July 4, 2020

During that era, the Indian football team was one of the best teams in Asia and one of the top teams in the world. Coach Syed managed to take the Indian team to the Melbourne Olympics Semi-Final in 1956. The team lost to Yugoslavia, making them the first ever Asian team in the history of the Olympics to reach the knockout round. Legendary Mumbai footballer, Neville D’Souza was the top scorer with 4 goals in the 1956 Olympics.

Talking about the film, Devgn told PTI that working on Maidaan “has been a very moving and emotional journey” for him. “It is a fabulous story, director Amit Sharma has done a great job. Times have changed, storytelling has changed. There are no deliberate commercial elements added to a film today, be it a song or the romantic angle. Maidaan has been a very moving and emotional journey for me,” the actor said. Apart from Ajay Devgn, the film also stars Priyamani, Gajraj Rao and Rudranil Ghosh.

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