‘I knew If I don't recreate this correctly, the country will not forgive me’ – Kabir Khan on the expectations and speculations surrounding 83

Kabir Khan, the director of the most-awaited movie ‘83’, was clear cut in saying that he had a massive task of living up to people’s expectations surrounding the movie. The film is set to release on Thursday, December 23 and there’s a lot of speculations regarding whether or not it will be able to capture the imagination of the fans.

Khan was aware that he had to be precise while picking the actors of the movie and directing the film to the best of his ability. The 53-year-old said that the netizens would be unforgiving if ‘83’ doesn’t live up to the aura of India’s stupendous victory nearly 38 years ago.

If reports are to be believed, Arjun Kapoor was set to play the role of Kapil Dev, the legendary all-rounder and the skipper of the World Cup-winning squad. However, the 53-year-old Khan mentioned that he didn’t want to look beyond Ranveer Singh, who he reckoned, had the potential to step into Dev’s shoes.

Ranveer Singh worked very hard, says Kabir Khan

“Ye ek gut and instinct hota hai. Ever since I was asked to make the film, I had only Ranveer on my mind. Ranveer is a chameleon. See his last 4 films and you feel there’s a different human being in each of them. I knew Ranveer would be the perfect choice. I told him it’s not a look-alike contest, you need to imbibe Kapil’s persona,” Khan was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with the Times of India.

“You know, 83 is a big responsibility for me. I knew if I don’t recreate this correctly, the country will not forgive me. Ditto for Ranveer: If he won’t portray Kapil correctly, the audience will not forgive him. And as you see from the trailer, he has done it brilliantly. He worked very hard,” he added.

Khan also revealed that he had to audition more than 2000 people before he could pick 14 best ones for the roles in the movie. Apart from Ranveer, 83 also features veteran actors like Hardy Sandhu, Deepika Padukone, Ammy Virk, Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani, Neena Gupta and others.