Much anticipated and aspired, Bollywood has embraced Chess as a major and growing sport among young Indians dedicating a movie to the life of – not India’s FIRST GM Viswanathan Anand, but India’s 50th GM, Karnataka’s first GM, GM M. S. Thejkumar. Kannada director Sunil Kumar Desai, with his chess background, showed a keen interest, to launch a Kannada movie. Bollywood picked it up from that and now the dream team of Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif and Rakesh Roshan (director) will be featuring in the movie that is befittingly named “Thej”.
Thejkumar became Karnataka’s first GM in 2017 and Chessbase India published an article about how the love of his life became an inspiration for him to become a chess Grand Master. Dedication and hard work in sports have been well chronicled by Bollywood on the big screen and this actually happened in real life with Thejkumar.
Speaking to Vijayavani, Sunil Kumar Desai said, “The story of Thejkumar’s love is inspiring. It is a dedication to how love can inspire individuals to do something special in their lives. I have always been a follower of the game of chess and this story brought me back my days of directing the movie Beladingala Baale.” Sunil Kumar Desai is considered to be one of the most influential and innovative directors in the Kannada film industry. And he is by no means new to the game of chess. His movie “Beladingala Baale” released in 1995 starring Anant Nag was a romantic thriller revolving around a chess grandmaster trying to find an unidentified caller who turns into the love of his life.
Things took an inspiring turn when director Rakesh Roshan showed a keen interest to work on the movie “Thej” and release it in Bollywood in Hindi. In an interview with Bollywoodlife, an online news portal, Rakesh said, “Chess is a niche sport which has not been brought into mainstream Bollywood. Of course, a movie on the life of the superstar Vishy Anand is the most natural one, but Thejkumar’s story has a romantic angle which will strike a chord with the Indian audience. Hrithik has always followed the game of chess with keen interest and I think he would be perfect for the role.”
Hrithik as Thejkumar and Katrina as Jayashree in “Thej”
Rakesh Roshan took a bold decision to film Katrina Kaif for the love inspiration in this movie given that Amisha Patel has been a natural choice. At the Maharashtra Chess League auction in 2016, Aamir Khan was asked, “Which Bollywood actress plays the best chess” and he narrated the incident where he had very nearly lost a game of chess against Katrina Kaif.
Given this attention and dramatization of yet another inspiring sport, the popularity of the game of chess is sure to rise in India!
With anticipated release in late 2018 to early 2019 excitement is already building up among chess, players, aspirants and enthusiasts!
