Actress Vidya Malavade, who played the iconic role of Vidya Sharma, the captain of the women’s hockey team in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chak De! India, recently marked 19 years of the film. The actress revealed that the film’s dramatic climax hockey match was shot over 15 nights.
Vidya Malavade celebrates 19 years of Chak De! India
Vidya shared a video on her social media recollecting moments from the making of the 2007 film as the film completed 19 years. She also expressed gratitude to fans for the outpouring of love.
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In the video, she said, “So, it’s been 19 years since Chak De India. And it’s like a blessing that never stops giving. And this is your love. Thank you so so so much for loving us so much. So much love, that you’ve been giving us for 19 years, I’m so thankful for that.”
Vidya added that she finds it heartwarming that even after so many years, the audiences continue to remember her character. “I always say, it’s my parents’ blessings, their blessings, and I don’t know, a little bit of hard work, and this is what, nowadays, when people don’t remember the names of the movies that have come out, you guys still remember and call me Vidya Sharma India. And I think that’s, it’s really heartwarming,” she said.
Vidya recalls shooting for the film
Vidya also recalled the early days of the film’s shoot, sharing how the team had no idea that Chak De! India would eventually become so iconic. “Our group of girls, my entire team, we’ve all been wishing each other, and hoping that we’d be together. You know, when we started shooting for Chak De, we had obviously no idea that it would become what it has become. But for us, we were just playing,” she shared.
The actress also revealed that she underwent extensive hockey training and spent an entire year practising the sport. “We were taught set plays. That’s all we were doing. We were learning it, and we didn’t know where the cameras were kept, we didn’t know literally nothing. We were just doing our set plays, and then when they would say cut, they’d say, okay, we’ve got this take, let’s move on, and we’d move on and do the next set play. That is what we were doing throughout,” she revealed.
She went on to share, “But it took us one year. One year of practising hockey, and out of that, there was a six-month shoot. And whichever day, the day we weren’t shooting, any one of us not shooting, we would be on the field playing, learning our set plays. So it never really occurred to us that in the future, you guys would remember this for the next 19 years.”
Vidya, who suffered an injury earlier this year, also recalled shooting the film’s climax hockey match. She revealed that the team spent six weeks in Australia and that they shot the finale for 15 nights. “Yeah, 6 weeks in Australia. 15 nights of shooting the final match. All the lovely women who joined us. Australian team, the Korean team, rest of the teams are from Australia. And yeah, 16 girls. That bond is still there. It’s our group,” Vidya shared.
Vidya also reflected back on her role, saying she felt fortunate to have played the captain of the team saying, “I think I got really lucky that I could play the captain of the team. I got really lucky that I could play Vidya Sharma India!”
