Bengali film industry has grown rapidly over the years. From making art house films to making commercial films, the industry has grown into a major money making film industries just like the other film industries in India. Bengali film industry has many production houses which make good money releasing some big budget films with some of the most famous Bengali superstars like Dev, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee, Jeet, Rituparna Sengupta, Koel Mallick, Mimi Chakraborty etc.
There are other actors too but stars like Dev and Prosenjit has given more blockbuster films are compared to other stars. These superstars of Bengali cinema has appeared in various genres of commercial films like romance, action, comedy, thriller, drama etc but most people won’t know about the fact that they also did some of the most underrated sports movies. In this article, we will talk about some of the best sports movies of the Bengali film industry.
Bengali Sports Movies
Here are some of the best Bengali sports movies you should watch:
Egaro
Egaro (Eleven) is a Bengali sports film based on the game of Football. Football is a said to be the most famous game in West Bengal and is very close to the emotions of Bengali people. Egaro is dedicated to the eleven players of the famous Mohun Bagan Football Club of Kolkata. Egaro was released in the year 2011. The film was directed by Arun Roy and produced by Magic Hour Entertainment.
The main story of the film is around the famous Football match played between Mohun Bagan and East Yorkshire Regiment where Mohun Bagan defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment team by 2-1 and lifted the coveted IFA Shield. They became the first Indian team to lift the shield. They were the first team who played barefooted against players with boots and yet won the match. The film shows how they prepared for the match and the ups and downs in their journey. Egaro was released on 21 January 2011 and it is one of the most loved sports film of Bengali film industry.
Lorai: Play to Live
Lorai is a Indian Bengali sports film released in the year 2015 on 9 January. The film is based on the football which is the most loved game in Kolkata. Lorai is directed by the famous Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee and it was produced by Shyamsundar Dey. The story was written by Sabir Hossain Molla. Famous Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee was playing the lead role of Sebastian Ryan, a drunk ex-football player and coach.
The story of the film was setup around a football coach who given the responsibility to form a football team in a politically disturbed area but the sports minister became a hurdle between his goal. Sebastian Ryan’s football team somehow played exceptionally well to make the sports minister realize the potential of the team and decided not to cancel the program. The film Lorai: Play to Live has a similar story like the superhit Bollywood film Chak de! India.
Tiki Taka
Tiki Taka is another sport comedy film which is related to the game of Football, the most loved game of Bengali people. Tiki Taka is originally known as the playing style developed by Spanish Football team FC Barcelona between 2009 and 2012. But the film Tiki Taka is totally different. Tiki Taka was produced and directed by the famous Bengali actor and director Parambrata Chatterjee. The film was released on 11 September 2020 on Zee5 OTT platform. The film stars Parambrata Chatterjee and African actor Emona Enabulu in the main lead while actor Bengali actors like Ritabhari Chakraborty and Saswata Chatterjee in the supporting roles. The film Tiki Taka was had plans to have a theatrical release in 2020 but due to COVID pandemic, the release date of the film was pushing further. The producers of the film later decided to release the film in the Zee5 OTT platform.
Chaamp
Chaamp is one of the best sports drama films in the Bengali film industry. It can be said that Chaamp was one of the most important and best films of Dev because of the reason he himself was the writer of the film. Dev was also the producer of the film. The film was directed by Raj Chakraborty who is a famous director in the Tollywood film industry. The story of the film is simple as it shows how a champion boxer loses his champion status due to an accident but then fights back to get into the ring and finally regains his champion status.
Dev was seen in the film as a boxer Shibaji Sanyal who was playing the lead role and Rukmini Maitra played the role of Jaya Sanyal, his wife. The film had other famous Bengali actors like Chiranjeet Chakraborty, Payel Sarkar, and Kamaleshwar Mukherjee. The film was produced with a budget of 10 Crores but it ended up earning more than 15 Crores in the Box office which made it a superhit blockbuster film. The female lead Rukmini Maitra did her Tollywood debut with this film.
Golondaaj
Golondaaj is another sports drama film featuring Bengali superstar Dev Adhikari. The film is very new compared to other sports film in the list. Golondaaj was released on 10 October 2021. It was one of the very first films that was released in the cinema halls after a long gap because of COVID pandemic. Golondaaj was directed by Dhrubo Banerjee and was produced by Srikant Mohta and Mahendra Soni under their production house SVF Productions. The film can be said as the biography of Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari who is known as the “Father of Indian Football”. Golondaaj many Bengali superstars like Dev, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ishaa Saha, Indrasish Roy etc. Dev was playing the lead role of Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari. Golondaaj also features a American actor Alex O’Nell as Major Frederick Jackson. Golondaaj got a positive response in the box office. It collected more than ₹14 Crores while the film was made with a budget of ₹6 Crores. The film adds up to the list of superhit films of Bengali Superstar Dev.
Messi
We are not talking about the legendary footballer Lionel Messi here. Messi is one of the highly underrated Bengali movie which released in the recent years. The film was released on 26 May 2017. The title of the film is named after the famous footballer Messi. Messi was directed by Ringo Banerjee and produced by Pradip Churiwal. The story of the film was about two brothers Prosun and Chotu. Chotu was a talented football player and his family had many hopes from him while elder Prosun always arranged Football matches for Chotu. Due to an accident Chotu gets injured which ended his football career but later Prosun decided to fulfill his brother’s dream and started playing football. Not many viewers knew about this film but the story of the film is quit inspiring which somehow relates with the life of Lionel Messi.
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