Million Dollar Arm is directed by Craig Gillespie and stars Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma as Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the first Indian-nationals to play professional baseball in America, alongside Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as J.B. Bernstein, the sports agent who finds them. The film had its UK premiere at the London Indian Film Festival on Monday at Cineworld, Shaftesbury Avenue.
The film featured at LIFF’s centre piece gala, an event that saw a host of celebrities grace the red carpet. The fact that it was very well received by the audience, could be sensed from the uplifting vibe in the auditorium after the film ended, a feeling that was infectious and speaks volumes about the film’s potential mass appeal. Many people from the audience commented on how wonderful the film was and how much they’d enjoyed it. For some it was the uplifting rags-to-riches story that made it work; for some it was the powerful musical score by A.R Rahman; and for some the actors’ powerful performances. One guest in particular summed the film up beautifully by commenting on how ‘it’s always good to see a happy film once in a while’. The Q&A after the screening -which was hosted by LIFF ambassadors Sunny and Shay – saw producer Ciardi and star Mittal talk in detail about how the film was made and take questions from the audience. The highlight of the Q&A though has to be Mittal being asked to pitch a baseball to Sunny and doing quite well considering he was caught off guard!
Our festival volunteers, Marta (the editor of this blog and volunteers’ coordinator), Sirah (volunteer and film professional) and Mehul (volunteer and photographer), managed to catch up with Madhur Mittal and Mark Ciardi, the producer of the film, before the premiere.
Hello, welcome from the London Indian Film Festival. I am Marta, and I am running the Volunteer’s blog for the festival this year so I would like to ask you a few questions about your experience at LIFF and about your film, as it is premiering with us today.
London Indian Film Festival is about celebrating Indian independent cinema, but also productions that touch on South Asian issues. So how would you feel this film is contributing to Indian cinema and how do you see it as part of the festival?
Mark: I see this bridging the East-West gap and having a better understanding of both cultures – from an Indian perspective and American perspective. We thought this is a real co-production when we started out this film, and it really felt like we wanted to be authentic to India and be authentic to the US. So, when the boys came to America they experienced what our boys in real life did and that culture clash, and then J.B [Bernstein] going to India, the same thing. We wanted to show everything, the good and the bad, the frustrations, the beauty, and make an authentic film that had humour, heart and emotions. So hopefully it gives people in both countries, and around the world, and idea of what these cultures are like.
Madhur: I think for a film like ours, LIFF is an ideal place to put it because this is a kind of a reflection of what our film is. It is a meeting of India and the West. It’s the London Indian Film Festival. I think it’s the perfect place to screen a film which is so diverse and has more than one culture.
Talking about the culture clash. Because there is a way of portraying India in western films, sometimes it tends to be exoticised, to an extent, for the western audience. Was there any conscious way you were shooting the film, where you tried to avoid the clichés and stereotypes, and to show it for what it is. And the same thing with the boys experiencing America. Was that something on your mind when you were shooting?
Mark: Yes, we didn’t want to make it too over the top, too cartoony. We wanted to make these real-life experiences, while having fun with it as well. You know, a lot of this was from J.B’s eyes so he contributed a lot to what went into the film, the screenplay, and all the things that happened and you see on screen, in one form or another. Again, the frustrations, it’s also beauty. We didn’t want to romanticise it too much. We wanted to show the honking, the cows walking around, and also the beauty in everything. In fact, I think it’s a line that John says, his love interest asks: “So what it’s like, what’s India like?”, he says, “I don’t know, it’s kind of overwhelming. It’s good, it’s bad. The smells are terrible and beautiful”. So it’s kind of everything in one. That’s what we tried to portray. But when you leave, it is having such an impact on you. Being part of the crew, and me being the producer of the film, you leave having this different feeling. It draws you back. In real life, that’s what happened with J.B. He went over many many years and learnt Hindi, and really captured what it was like to embrace India in a big way.
Madhur: I think there is a big difference, between clichés and things that actually happen. For example, we don’t have the whole Indian road trip, and elephants, and all that you think about. And these things, the rest of it, the honking, the Indian timing, and by-passing the system, all of that really exists. Literally your parents teach you to by-pass the system. That’s what it is, that’s exactly what is really happening, and we have stayed true to the events, and how they happened in the boys’ life and J.B’s life. We haven’t really made anything up and we have stayed true to facts. That comes across in this film too.
Madhur, you’re playing Dinesh Patel, who is in real life a bit more shy and introvert when compared to Rinku [Singh]. So what was his reaction to the film?
Madhur: You know, that was the guy I wanted to impress, obviously. Because if I can impress him, then that’s my job done. I remember at the premiere, he was sitting right behind me. And all through the film I kept glancing back to see what his reactions were. And he seemed very pleased and he was very kind and had all the nice things to say.
That’s wonderful. And what captured both of you in the story that you decided to become a part of it?
Mark: You know for me, I’d known J.B. before I was even in the film business and I reconnected with him in 2007 right before he went to India. And I asked him, you know we just caught up, you know what are you doing, what I was doing, and he said he was heading over to India to do a reality show to find a baseball pitcher, and I said ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Yeah man, I’m going over.’ And about a year and a half later he ends up in my office and has this remarkable story about how he got these two kids signed. And digging a little deeper, about the impact the boys had on him, and opened him up, and he’s married now and has a child. And he credits the boys. Less the business deal and getting these kids signed, but really the emotional impact of having two kids that he inherited and adopted.
Madhur: What really interested me and got my attention was first of all the fact that this was a true story and I’d never done something like that, to play a character based on a real person. That really excited me because I thought it would be challenging at first. And also the fact that when I first read the script I had no idea about this story. And that was very surprising, and I was taken aback by that. Because what they achieved is almost next to impossible. It’s an amazing feat never achieved by anybody else in the world before. So I was surprised that I did not know about these two boys. And nobody that I knew did know about them either. It’s a story that needs to be told and I’m very lucky to be a part of it.
How was this film received in India? What kind of impact do you hope it could make?
Madhur: Everybody who saw it in India had amazing things to say. The story of the underdog is very universally appealing. But I hope that the biggest impact this makes is, I hope the kids start dreaming and realise that if they can’t play cricket that there are other sports that they can be better at or have other sports as careers. And they can dream about it and you know that can happen if you believe in it. These two boys should emerge as sport idols and heroes, who give the kids a chance to dream.
Mark: It’s sometimes hard to rise above a certain level in India, and sports is not thought as a big career choice and not that a million of kids are going to end up playing professional baseball. But to have that hero to look up to. You can, it’s not just about dreaming, it’s baseball you can apply to a lot of situations. You can get yourself out of a situation, out of your class. That’s what’s great. These two boys had very little and now they have such an impact on so many. That’s what is exciting.
Madhur, you, Dev Patel, Suraj Sharma, you are a new generation of Indian stars, but internationally acclaimed and known, with less of a score of Indian productions. How would you see your career progressing? Would you feel that you are going more towards international productions, you would keep on doing that, or would you see yourself engaging with Indian cinema?
Madhur: I haven’t really engaged with Indian cinema for a while now. Ever since Slumdog [Millionaire] all the work I have done has been international. I am lucky for getting much more work from the West than India surprisingly at the moment. Which is ok, because I just want to do good work, it could be Chinese or English or Madrasi for all I care. I just want to do good cinema. I have always had the luck of playing different characters in all the films I’ve done. I want to keep on that going. I would love to work in Bollywood as well. But the kind of work that I want to do doesn’t come to people that look like me in Bollywood. You know, you have this whole light skin and light eyes, all buffed up. But that’s changing now, now people cast for roles rather than making films for stars. And hopefully that changes things for me too.
What kind of Indian directors at the moment you admire that you would like to work with?
Madhur: There is this guy, Q, he just goes by the name of Q, he is great, and Dibakar Banerjee, and Anurag Kashyap obviously. The new guy, what is this guy’s name? He made Ship of Theseus?
Anand Gandhi.
Madhur: Anand Gandhi. He is good too.
So all LIFFers.
Madhur: There you go!
Mark: LIFFers?
LIFFers. LIFF – London Indian Film Festival. All their films premiered or at some point were shown at our film festival.
Mark: Oh. LIFFers. That’s great. I thought it was an area in India. [laughter]
We came up with a lot of neologisms with the word LIFF – LIFFleting, LIFFers, love LIFF. Anyway, thank you very much for the interview. It was a pleasure.
Mark: Thank you.
Madhur: Thank you.
by Marta Schmidt and Sirah Haq
Photo: Mehul Halari
The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival 