Doosra is not Ganguly's biopic: Director Abhinay Deo on comparisons with Dada

Director Abhinay Deo clarified in an exclusive interview that Doosra tells Tara's fictional story rather than Sourav Ganguly's life. Starring Plabita Borthakur, Doosra was released in theatres on October 23.

In Short

• Abhinay Deo clarified that Doosra is a fictional story, not a Sourav Ganguly biopic
• The film explores how Ganguly’s iconic 2002 Lord’s celebration inspired a young woman
• Its release was delayed by the pandemic and the process of clearing archival footage

Director Abhinay Deo has clarified that Doosra is not a biopic of former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, but a fictional story about how one iconic moment in Indian cricket inspired an ordinary person to fight her own battles. Drawing inspiration from Ganguly's famous shirt-waving celebration at Lord's after India's historic NatWest Series final win in 2002, the film follows Tara (Palabita Borthakurta), a young woman from a small town in Rajasthan who struggles with her individuality, sexuality and relationships.

In an interview with India Today, Deo spoke about the idea behind the film, its nearly seven-year journey to release and why the makers chose to explore the impact of Ganguly's historic celebration rather than tell the cricketer's life story. His comments come against the backdrop of the ongoing controversy surrounding the film, with Ganguly and production house Luv Films approaching the Delhi High Court over alleged personality rights violations and seeking to halt its release.

With a biopic on Ganguly also in the works, the filmmaker dismissed suggestions that the timing of Doosra's release was linked to the other project — Rajkummar Rao starrer Dada. "Because the feature film talks about Sourav's life, and this talks about Tara's life," he said, reiterating that the two projects tell different stories despite drawing inspiration from the same defining moment in Indian cricket.

Doosra is about the impact of Ganguly's iconic moment

Maintaining that Doosra is about the impact of a historic sporting moment rather than Ganguly's personal journey, the filmmaker said the team had acquired the archival footage used in the film and was careful about securing the necessary rights.

Explaining how the idea originated, Deo said the concept came from Chicago-based producers Rohan Sachde and Mahesh Sachde. Rohan, who played cricket in Australia during the late 1990s, had experienced racism and prejudice during his playing days. Watching India's 2002 victory on television proved to be a turning point for him. "He ended up seeing the 2002 match on television and got highly inspired after that moment. And he said, you know what, we are as good, if not better. So this is what the brief given to me was," Deo said.

The filmmaker, however, felt that simply recreating Ganguly's iconic celebration would leave an important part of the story untold. Working with writer Agnello Oswin Dias, he developed a fictional narrative around Tara, exploring how a sporting moment could inspire someone dealing with personal struggles. He explained, "We believed that it would be an incomplete story if you only talk about what that moment was. It's very important to talk about the effect that moment [had] on a normal person. Like it affected Rohan."

Deo also spoke about whether the makers had approached Ganguly before using footage featuring him in the film. The director said they had reached out to the former cricketer and informed him about the project. He also recalled speaking to Ganguly while working on an advertisement with him. "Of course, we did reach out. And we did mention that this is what we are doing. And he was very happy," Deo said.

Why did Doosra take nearly seven years to release?

He also explained why the film took nearly seven years to reach the big screen.

Shot in Rajasthan in 2018 and 2019, the film was edited between 2019 and 2020, with the makers initially hoping to release it towards the end of 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the painstaking process of sourcing and legally clearing archival footage pushed the release back. "We had something like 3,000 hours of footage that we had to sieve. It was a nightmare," he said, adding that the team was working across India, New York and Chicago during the editing process.

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