When Bhabani Munda was nursing a dream to become a footballer, she didn’t have Indian female Olympians bagging medals to egg her on. The young woman from a tribal hamlet in Kalchini, Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, had to stand up to gender disparity every day at home before she slipped out to the grounds. The girls she now plays with and coaches, all part of Dooars XI, a team she put together with members who work at the Kalchini tea estate, are able to stand as equals with the men because someone a long time ago decided she would be as good as the boys. 

It’s a story worth telling. Mumbai resident and filmmaker Alok Verma’s 20-minute documentary, The Players, launched recently on YouTube, traces the journey of Munda, who picked up her elder brother’s ball at seven, “ditching the doll”. Her brothers refused to play with her. “They said, what if you break a leg? No one will marry you,” Munda, 31, says in a video call interview from her residence.