Bollywood has teamed up with Manchester United in an attempt to win over India — a potentially vast and lucrative market but one stubbornly obsessed with cricket — to the charms of the beautiful game.

The Hindi film industry also hopes that Dhan Dhana Dhan . . . Goal, starring the Indian heart-throb John Abraham and his off-screen girlfriend Bipasha Basu, will win over new audiences outside India by featuring one of the world’s most famous football clubs. The director, Vivek Agnihotri, spent four years trying to convince a producer to make a film about a sport considered a minority pursuit in India before finding a backer in Ronnie Screwvala, the Bollywood supremo at the helm of UTV Motion Pictures, the Bombay-based studio.

Mr Agnihotri is convinced that his film will strike a chord with a new generation of sports fans who are starting to feel the attraction of the Premiership. “Every seven-year-old in India knows who Wayne Rooney is,” he said.

The film was shot on location during the off-season at Old Trafford. Although there are no cameo roles for any of the players, Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are likely to be used to promote the film — the story of a struggling Southall club facing closure. In the script, the manager takes his players to the home of the Premier League champions to inspire them to winning ways. The actors had training for their roles from Andy Ansah, the former Southend United striker, who choreographed the film’s matches.

Abraham had a head start, having captained his school football team. “I loved soccer and would have loved to take it up as a career, but apparently the universe had other plans for me,” he wrote on his personal website.

It is not the first time that Bollywood has sought to capture the appeal of football. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom starred Abhishek Bachchan, one of Bollywood’s hottest properties, as a Chelsea fan in love, but the film flopped at the box office. The makers of Goal are hoping that the Indian public is more receptive to a film about football after the national team won the Nehru Cup in Delhi in August, beating Syria, the favourites, 1-0.

Although cricket is by far the number one sport, European football leagues are increasingly interested in India as the next big emerging market after encountering issues such as piracy in China. The Premier League is already popular among the young urban elite in India and had an audience of 42 million last season.

“We are conscious that we’re never going to overtake cricket but even if we can become the number two sport, given the size of the country, that’s still huge,” said Phil Lines, the league’s head of international broadcasting. “If interest in India continues to grow at the same rate as most of Asia, it will become one of our biggest markets.”

The Premier League is extending its coaches’ training programme to India, where clubs including United and Chelsea are believed to be looking at setting up schools.

Football on film

— Offside (2006) is an Iranian comedy about a group of girls who dress as boys to get into a stadium to see a football match

— Fever Pitch (1997), the film of Nick Hornby’s book, portrays love during Arsenal’s winning season in 1988-89

— Bend it Like Beckham (2002) acquired cult status in the US and popularised football there

Source: Internet Movie Database

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