If
Harman
Baweja
has
the
pluck
to
play
cricket
with
the
champs,
it's
because
national
cricketer
Praveen
Amre
has
been
taken
on
as
the
expert
consultant
in
Victory
to
make
sure
Harman
gets
it
right,
each
time.
Making
a
cricket
movie
isn't
easy.
So,
Harman
Baweja
has
discovered
while
shooting
for
debutant
director
Ajit
Pal's
Victory.
Usually,
acting
is
about
faking
it.
And
when
Aamir
Khan
played
cricket
so
expertly
in
Lagaan,
he
didn't
have
face
professional
players
on
screen.
In
Victory,
where
Harman
plays
a
professional
cricketer
he
was
pitched
against
professional
real-life
cricketers.
After
playing
with
pros
of
the
field
in
Australia
earlier
this
year,
Harman
on
Thursday
manoeuvred
the
bat
with
Rajasthan's
seasoned
Ranji
Trophy
players
like
Mohammed
Ahmed
and
Abhijeet
Sharma.
Sunburnt
and
suffering
from
a
serious
sun-
stroke,
Harman
says,
"Earlier
in
Australia
I
played
with
Brett
Lee,
Stuart
Clark
and
Mike
Hussey.
I'd
like
to
think
I
looked
authentic
enough
playing
with
them.
Now
I
play
with
Rajasthan's
Ranji
players
since
yesterday.
And
I'm
having
a
ball.
Because
although
I'm
playing
a
cricketer,
I'm
playing
for
real.
Man,
you
can't
fake
it
with
these
guys.
And
considering
Rajasthan
has
just
won
the
IPL,
you
can
imagine
how
good
these
guys
are
at
the
game.
"
To
ensure
complete
authenticity
in
the
cricket
scenes,
cricket
expert
Praveen
Amre
was
deployed
all
through
the
shooting.
"Praveen
Amre
was
part
of
the
Indian
team
in
the
mid-1990s.
We
didn't
want
to
falter
for
even
a
bat
of
an
eyelid,
pun
intended.
Hence,
the
expert
advice," says
Harman.
The
cricket
scenes
being
shot
in
Jodhpur
show
Harman's
characters
beginnings
as
a
star-cricketer.
"It's
the
story
of
a
cricketer
Vijay
Shekhawat's
rise
from
a
small-town
player
to
a
national-level
cricketer.
My
big
moment
came
when
these
Ranji
players
said
I
played
well.
They
told
me
there's
a
lot
more
to
cricket
than
just
the
shot.
They
said
I
looked
convincing
in
the
way
I
wore
my
helmet,
gloves,
stood
my
ground,
ran
and
connected
with
the
field.
I
worked
on
all
of
that.
As
far
as
playing
the
game
goes,
I
was
a
cricket
player
from
school
and
college.
So,
I
only
needed
to
brush
up
the
game.
It
was
getting
the
other
details
about
a
cricketer's
personality
right
that
was
tough."
Since
Thursday
morning,
Harman
was
playing
cricket
non-stop
for
12
hours.
"By
the
end,
of
it
I
was
ready
to
collapse.
Everyone
else
in
the
crew
had
breaks.
They
ran
under
trees,
checked
the
monitor
in
the
shade
while
I
had
to
stand
in
the
burning
sun
and
play
non-stop
for
12
hours,
rehearsing
and
doing
final
takes…I'm
so
exhausted
by
the
heat
I
can
collapse
right
now," says
Harman
who
suffers
from
a
heat
allergy.
Story first published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 12:31 [IST]