Abhinay Deo is back with Doosra, and the story behind its journey to cinemas is as layered as the film itself. The film opens on October 23 with PVR INOX Pictures distributing, and it runs on two parallel tracks: key moments from Sourav Ganguly’s cricket career, including India’s historic win over England in the 2002 NatWest Series final, and Tara (Plabita Borthakur), whose own journey starts in a restrictive Rajasthan household.
A trailer push with no business connection
Bhushan Kumar gave the trailer a slot on T-Series’ YouTube channel even though T-Series has no connection with the film. Deo recalled Kumar’s reaction as Arre, trailer chalao
. The gesture is significant because T-Series runs one of the largest YouTube channels in the world, with more than 300 million subscribers.
The thank-you list, explained
Subhash Ghai hosted the first public trailer screening for students at Whistling Woods International’s Celebrating Cinema festival after he liked the trailer. Jisshu U Sengupta, who worked with Deo on Brown, is helping organise the Kolkata leg, since Kolkata is Sourav Ganguly’s home ground.
Why the protagonist is a girl who doesn’t care about cricket
The original idea came from producer Rohan Sajdeh, based in Chicago, who approached Deo about a documentary on Ganguly and the 2002 NatWest final. Sajdeh’s own experiences of racism as a young cricketer in Australia shaped the question at the centre of the film: what does a sporting moment change in an individual’s life? Advertising veteran Agnello Dias refined the idea further, suggesting the protagonist should be a girl, not a boy, and should have nothing to do with cricket. That became Tara.
Why the edit took years
Doosra was shot in 2018-19 and edited in 2019-20, with the edit done in New York by Israeli editor Ayelet Gil Efrat. She had no prior knowledge of cricket or Indian cultural context – and that was the point. Deo wanted a fresh, baggage-free perspective for a film where editing was the make-or-break factor. COVID kept the footage in New York, the producers in Chicago and Deo in India, stretching the timeline over years and other project commitments.
What it means for the release
- October 23 theatrical date – PVR INOX Pictures is backing a big-screen run despite nearly seven other Hindi films on the same day.
- Free reach – the trailer got a platform from a 300 million-plus subscriber channel with no equity or distribution tie.
- An outsider’s edit – a cricket-agnostic editor was hired to cut for emotion rather than highlight-reel habits.
For fans, that makes Doosra an unusual big-screen proposition: a familiar cricket high retold through a character who has no reason to care about it – until she does. It also explains why the team is prioritising a theatrical release and a Kolkata leg of promotion, where Ganguly’s fandom is strongest.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com