BCCI declines the demand on discount for the Sachin: A Billion Dreams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) flagrantly said that there will be no concession for the upcoming Sachin’s biographical film. ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ is set to be released worldwide next month and this movie is completely based on the life history of Sachin Tendulkar. The trailer of this movie has been launched recently which got a huge success around the world.

The production company of this movie asked BCCI for some video footage of Sachin Tendulkar’s batting and also some iconic moments of the Master Blaster which happened in his career for his upcoming biopic. The BCCI have a set of rules and according to that they have the copyrights for all the matches conducted and using it for some commercial purpose, they have to buy it by paying a certain amount to BCCI. ‘200 Not Out’ the production company of ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ seeking for a discount to buy the footage from the BCCI but, they refused to provide a discount.

Already during the MS Dhoni’s biopic, the film-makers asked for Dhoni’s footage to BCCI and the BCCI clearly said to Arun Pandey, the producer of the film ‘MS Dhoni the Untold Story’ that they have to pay around rupees one crore for the footage that they asked. Even, Sourav Ganguly paid a certain amount to BCCI to get some footage for that film. So, BCCI answered clearly to the Ravi Bhagchandka that BCCI have some standard rules and they couldn’t change that for Sachin’s biopic. They didn’t even provide any concession for Dhoni’s biopic and so, the rules must be equal to everyone.

One of the top BCCI official told the Indian Express, “The BCCI, in fact, has a rate-card in place when it comes to providing videos and the price depends upon the matches and their significance. The footage is charged on ‘per seconds basis’. The BCCI has a policy in place. The board didn’t give concession to Dhoni for his biopic then how can board change its rules for Tendulkar’s biopic. After all, it’s a commercial movie, which is going to be shown in theatres. Already the trailer that they released has got more than a million hits. The board’s stance was also informed to the Committee of Administrators”. The film producers already purchased certain footage from the Cricket South Africa and Cricket Australia through ICC.

The producer Bhangchandka answered to the BCCI’s documentary that, “The BCCI by-laws have two categories for the fiction genre and documentary genre with differential rates for footage. The fiction genre usually requires a limited amount of footage since most of the characters in the life of the cricketer are played by actors. The documentary genre as defined by BCCI cannot be released theatrically. Presently, the by-laws do not have a provision for a genre of a film which is a non-fiction biographical drama being released theatrically”.

Whatever issues may be, but the fans are eagerly waiting for the release of this movie and it is sure that the Master Blaster will create a record in the box office too.