By Akshay Acharya

Mumbai, Mar 27 (IANS): Seventeen years after his runaway success 'Iqbal', Shreyas Talpade is gearing up for yet another cricket film, this time a biopic titled 'Kaun Pravin Tambe?' based on the life of former spinner Pravin Tambe.

Pravin happens to be the oldest ever IPL debutant having made his foray into the league at the age of 41. In a recent conversation with IANS, the actor spoke about the biopic, what he has learnt from the cricketer and working again on a cricket drama after almost two decades.

For him, working on the film brought a lot of perspective as he got to know "How a person's journey of twenty years can be shown in just a two hour long film."

Ask him about Pravin's one quality that he would like to imbibe and make a part of your social conduct, and pat comes the response, "His focus towards his work, dream or cricket. This is something which has usually inspired me as well not only when I was being a part of the film but even when I heard the story. When it comes to cricket he has a single minded focus and that is something which I will try to add in my life."

He plays a bowler in both 'Iqbal' and 'Kaun Pravin Tambe?' Although, the techniques of a pacer and a spin bowler are vastly different but the creative memory lives on for any artist. On being asked as to how did he maneuver his way around this memory, he says, "'Iqbal' was a fictional film where the character is trying to play for the Indian team and there was a lot of bowling involved in 'Iqbal'".

What helped him was his involvement with the sport in real life as well.

He adds, "Moreover, I have played cricket in real life as well. However, during this film we need to know that it is his journey and cricket is just a part of it and the focus was more on the journey of the sports person so there was bigger responsibility as it was a true story. Bowling in a way was incidental as he was a medium pacer in his younger times and a spinner in the age where he made name for himself."

He continues, "For this film, we had to show a story which happened in real life and even though we can take a few cinematic liberties, we decided to stay true to the essence of the story as there are certain things which are to be portrayed the way they have been in real life."

After doing another cricket film after 'Iqbal' there are going to be certain comparisons but I believe that people will love me in this role as well", he concludes.