Chaitanya Sharma: ‘Took him 5 mins to write his name, but he did it’

Chaitanya, who plays the late PK Banerjee in Maidaan, recalls how football star visited the set in a wheelchair and gifted a personally inscribed book to Ajay Devgn

Chaitanya Sharma aka Slow Cheeta jokes that Amit R Sharma is “the Virat Kohli of directors”. To the rapper-actor, the director is the force that built an on-screen football team for Maidaan. How did he bag the Ajay Devgn-starrer? Out of the blue, says Chaitanya. “[Until then], I was either a big fish in a small project, or a small fish in a big project. I was shooting for Apna time aayega [Gully Boy, 2019] when I was spotted. I used to play for a football league called Roots. That day, we were losing 2-0, and I scored a hat-trick to win us the game. Maidaan’s first assistant director Atul [Shahi] was there to scout for talent. That was the start. Next three months were gruelling because I kept auditioning again and again. I had to learn a monologue in Bengali. When I was sent to train in March 2019, I realised it’s happening for me,” he recalls. 

PK Banerjee, who was the first Indian football player to receive the Arjuna Award 

Chaitanya, who steps into the shoes of the late PK Banerjee, says the opportunity left him stunned. “PK Banerjee was the [Indian] footballer of the century, and it sounded unbelievable that I could crack it,” he shares. 

Through Devgn’s character of coach-manager Syed Abdul Rahim, the sports drama looks at Indian football’s golden era between 1952 and 1962. Chaitanya’s most memorable day of the shoot was when Banerjee visited the set in Kolkata. “I was shooting the entry sequence the day he dropped by. I was flying through the field that day. I saw the man in a wheelchair watching someone play him. His biggest asset, his legs, had given way because he was paralysed. He gave a book to Ajay sir, and opened the first page to sign it for him. His hand wasn’t stable, so I thought he’d write his initials. But he wrote Pradip Kumar Banerjee. It took him five minutes, but he did it. That underscores his spirit. I was sobbing when he left. Yesterday, I found out that his daughter watched the film and thought I did justice to his part. What can be a better compliment than that!”

Even though he featured in Gully Boy, Chaitanya considers Maidaan his debut. For him, it’s the most emotional experience of his life. “When I did Gully Boy, I’d tell people I star in the film. But for Maidaan, I tell everyone, ‘My movie is out this week.’ This film is a tribute to the men whose stories have remained untold, and we were lucky to tell the tale.”

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