Vindhya Tiwari: BCL helped me connect back to my roots

Vindhya Tiwari

Actor Vindhya Tiwari, who played for Kolkata Babu Moshayes in Ekta Kapoor and Anand Mishra's MTV BCL, says that she was always in love with cricket. The actor adds that she has been playing cricket right since her childhood. "Cricket has always been very close to my heart right from my childhood in Varanasi. In Banaras, during my childhood, I used to play cricket with all the boys.

I remember that in a group of 20 boys, I was the only girl who played cricket. Every afternoon by 12 or 1 pm, we used to play cricket. That is a very beautiful memory for me. But then I came to Bombay and became a TV actress. After that, I started living a very busy life. What happens is that in all this you often feel disconnected with your roots and miss your childhood. I felt that BCL was a great opportunity to play cricket. BCL helped me connect back to my roots," she says.

Ask her what she loves about cricket, and she says, "I love everything about cricket but I loved batting the most. I really don't know as to how I took a hat-trick wicket and did bowling, in the past. I guess I am a good batsman, who even loves doing fielding."

She says that Mahendra Singh Dhoni really inspires her. "I like Mahendra Singh Dhoni very much as I feel like he's such a captain who has changed the history of our Indian cricket team and India has won most of the matches successfully in his captaincy. The way he maintains a balance between his work and personal life is really a thing to applaud. He plays cricket very nicely. He's a consistent performer," she says.

Talking about why she decided to be part of Kolkata Babu Moshayes, she says, "I didn't really have any information about BCL originally. When I'd gone to give an audition for BCL, my friend Abhishek Rawat told Nivedita Basu that there's a girl namedVindhya Tiwari from Benaras who's a TV actress and plays good cricket. I auditioned and started taking sixes on their balls and Nivedita was shocked. Then she signed the contract with me and the next day we shot the music video for the show. From that year itself, I am a part of Kolkata Babu Moshayes."

The actor says that Delhi Dragons was their biggest competition. "Delhi Dragons, without a doubt, were our biggest competition, as they're really very good in carrying themselves on the ground and playing their game," she says.

Due to time constraints, it was tough for Vindhya to even play a single match, however, she tried to support her team as much as she could. "It was hectic as I was doing many shows at the same time and I didn't get time to go, so obviously it wasn't possible for me this time to play any of the matches for my team but my support and love was always there with Kolkata Babu Moshayes," she says.

She adds, "It was tough and even for practice, out of 7 days, I could go only 4 days. The reason is that you shoot for 12 hours, from morning to night, and for practice, you have to leave an hour early every day. So after 14 hours of shooting and travelling, you go for practice every day."

Talking about the owner of BCL, Anand Mishra, she says, "Anand Mishra the producer of Marinating films BCL is a very nice person. I met and congratulated him. His concepts and vision is very clear that he wants to do something very different. There're a lot of people and producers making reality shows, but they are all sensationalised. The way BCL is formatted every year according to the channel it is airing on, is beautiful and interesting. When all actors connect on sports, that friendship is real. Sports is such a platform where you show your real shades of aggression, jealousy and anger on the field. Sports brings to the forefront all negative emotions a person has."

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates