About this project
-- In a small village near Mohali, Punjab, in Northern India, fifty villagers sit on their haunches watching - on a single small TV - the Indian cricket team playing a match against the Australians. Old men, boys, and women cry out in despair or joy at every ball of the match. They might be illiterate and poor but they are keen followers of the nuances of this complex sport.
-- A fifteen year old boy from a large middle-class family in Mumbai trains at Shivaji Park, the birthplace of many of India's great cricketers, to be a first-class batsman. His parents have poured their life's savings into the boy's dream of playing one day for the Indian team. Meanwhile, they worry about his studies and his future in case he fails to make it to the highest level - after all in a country of over 1 billion avid cricket fans, the national team only fields 11 players at a time.
-- An upper-class English speaking Indian with an MBA from Harvard watches the game from his private box at the New Delhi stadium. His associates and friends enjoy French wine and caviar while his eyes never leave the game. He worries about how his hedge fund is doing and whether stocks will suffer if India makes an early exit from the World Cup.
These are just three of the many stories that we will be following in our documentary set in India in the Spring of 2011 when the WORLD CUP OF CRICKET - a quadrennial event with 14 competing countries and over a billion fans worldwide - takes place.
The last time India hosted the World Cup of Cricket was 16 years ago but a lot has changed in the country since then. The past decade and a half have seen India emerge as a fast-growing global economic presence, an image that is increasingly touted by its elites. Also, cricket has changed from being a colonial sport played by English gentlemen to a sport that now fully belongs to the Indian masses. India is now the commercial center of cricket worldwide and the national team, much better today than in past decades is widely considered a favorite. But the last time India won the World Cup was in 1983 and Indian fans are hungry for World Cup glory.
WE PLAN to have 3 units shooting in 3 different parts of the country: Mumbai, one of the world's largest cities, a smaller town in Eastern or Southern India, and a village in the state of Punjab in the North. Our goal is to showcase the stories of Indian fans, separated by language, class, caste, religion, and gender, who otherwise have little in common except for their love of the Indian cricket team. We plan to follow these fans around as they work, face their everyday struggles - which in some cases are overwhelming - and obsess over India's progress in the World Cup.
We will shoot crowds at stadiums during matches, in their homes, at street-side tea-stalls and barber shops. We will interview former and current Indian cricketers, experts on the sport, and professors of sociology and history to try to get an understanding of how cricket has impacted everything in India from national identity, aspirations, and performance in other events such as the Olympics. But the main focus will be the personal stories of fans themselves.
THE MONEY we need is for basic essential production costs such as camera rentals, HD video memory card rentals, flights to India, travel and lodging in India, salaries for local crew, and everything that will go into a 2.5 month long ambitious shoot spread out over a large country. We NEED these funds to get the project going and will continue to raise money from other avenues such as grants and investors.
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on January 30, 2011.
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The BASIC: A DVD, a Special Thanks credit on the final film, and access to our blog as we travel through India making the film
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The BASIC and Access to the private screening of the film with the filmmakers
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All of the above and access to the film release party
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All of the above and a special Care Package from India including spices, tea and silk
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The BASIC, access to the private screening and film party, a World Cup Cricket Memorabilia Package (a World Cup Ball, photos from World Cup games etc.)
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The BASIC, access to the private screening and film party PLUS access to a rough cut of the film for your feedback!
Project By
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Writer/Director: Sushrut Jain
I was born and raised in Mumbai, India and grew up playing cricket. My mother, an avid cricket fan to this day, handed me a plastic toy bat soon after I had learned to walk.
I came to the United States to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics at Ohio Wesleyan University. I went on to pursue graduate studies, getting a Master’s degree in Economics from Stanford University. I worked for a few years as an economist in San Francisco.
However, I found myself drawn to storytelling and eventually went on to pursue an MFA in Film Production at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
In 2008, I wrote and directed a short film titled “Andheri” (Darkness) – a realist drama set on the streets of Mumbai. The film went on to play at over 40 major film festivals around the world including the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand (France), Edinburgh (Scotland), Palm Springs Shortsfest, Nashville, San Francisco Asian American, Expression en Corto (Mexico), the Kerala Film Festival (India) and others. The film also won several awards at these festivals.
I want to return to India to make a thrilling film structured around the World Cup of Cricket but extending beyond that to social commentary and personal narratives. I believe my filmmaking experience in Indian conditions, my love for cricket, and my understanding of Indian and Western cultures, position me uniquely to make an interesting film.
