Based on Indian male cricket team's maiden ODI World Cup win in 1983, Kabir Khan' sports drama 83 was released in the theatres in December 2021. The film starred Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, and had an ensemble of actors portraying the legends of Indian cricket who lifted the World Cup trophy defeating West Indies in the final at the iconic stadium Lord's.
Sahil Khattar portrayed Syed Kirmani, who kept wickets for India during the entire tournament. In a recent interview with DNA India, Sahil reflected on the film's dismal box office performance. 83 collected Rs 107.31 crore net in India and its total gross worldwide earnings were Rs 193 crore. The actor said that 83 could have made Rs 500 croe easily, if its wide theatrical release wasn't cut short due to the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.
When we asked Sahil why he thinks that 83 didn't work at the box office, sharing his disappontment over the uncontrollable reasons, he said, "It was only Omicron. I feel it was just Omicron. We went to so many screenings and premieres, and saw India's biggest stars cheering each and every dialogue and boundary. Time ne saath nahi diya, nahi toh yeh film bhi 500 crore se kam nahi thi (If time would have been with us, our film would have earned no less than Rs 500 crore). No doubts about that".
Sahil was further asked his reaction to some people complaining that there was "too much cricket" in the Kabir Khan directorial, Sahil said, "It's same as if I am making Peepli Live and I take electricity board people in the villages, and leave farmers aside, so what kind of film would that be?".
Apart from Ranveer Singh and Sahil Khattar, 83 featured Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Jatin Sarna, Chirag Patil, Nishant Dahiya, Harrdy Sandhu, Ammy Virk, Adinath Kothare, Dhairya Karwa, Dinker Sharma, and R Badree portaying the 14-member squad of Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
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