After Chak De India, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal is the next sports film that promises to take Bollywood movie-goers by storm
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal will see Bollywood's hottest couple John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, appear together onscreen, in full-fledged roles after three years.
John made his debut opposite Bipasha in the hit erotic thriller Jism, followed by duds Aetbaar and Madhoshi. But unlike their previous films, which were mainly thrillers, Goal, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, is a sports flick.
The film deals with Asian footballers who live in Southall, England. It gets into the depths of professional football and has Abraham in the lead role.
"In Goal I play Sunny Bhasin, a footballer who is a victim of racism. The movie deals with Sunny's trials and tribulations and how he eventually sorts out his differences with team members to help his club win. It was a challenging role as my character has shades of grey," says Abraham.
Goal sees Basu in the deglamorised role of Rumana, a Pakistani medical student. And to ensure her fans are not too disappointed by her plain look, she also appears in an item number, Billo Rani.
Arshad Warsi plays Shaan, Rumana's cousin. His character is at loggerheads with Abraham before they patch up in the latter half of the film.
This parallels the real-life showdown Abraham and Warsi had on the sets of Goal before things finally cooled down between them. Warsi and Abraham shared excellent onscreen chemistry in Kabul Express so naturally audiences will expect a repeat performance in Goal.
Wanting to make Goal look as authentic as possible, director Agnihotri made Warsi and Abraham undergo rigorous football training for the shoot.
"Besides making our entire cast go for football training sessions, we took the help of professional footballers and advice from football coaches. We also included real football players in the film," says Agnihotri.
The training from football coaches was especially helpful to Boman Irani, who plays the coach Tony Singh. Tony has his own demons to deal with while simultaneously having to guide his club to glory.
The film is shot like a Hollywood sports flick. Abraham hopes it will be appreciated and is encouraged by the success of hockey flick Chak De India. We will have to wait and see whether Goal too scores big at the box-office.
