'I don't bowl'

Shyam Bhatia in London

Yardley, the English actor who plays the moustachioed fast bowler in Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan, starring Aamir Khan, claims his only regret in the film was that he was bowled out in the first ball.

In real life, Chris England is a clean-shaven professional writer, occasional actor and amateur cricketer. Five years ago, he co-wrote a book on England footballer Gary Lineker. And in a few weeks, his sketches for a comedy show will be screened on the British commercial television network ITV.

His hilarious and affectionate personal account of the making of Lagaan will be published in his book Balham To Bollywood, where he reveals how the English actors (including him), auditioned in London for the cricket team in Lagaan.

England says, "It was very hard because I don't bowl. In fact, I was rather put off to discover that I had to bowl in the film because the audition was a cricket match where I batted. I'm a batsman rather than a bowler.

"During the audition, I probably played the best shot of the afternoon. When I was called to be in the film, I assumed all along that I was going to be a batsman. It was only when I got out there and read the script that I discovered I was to be out on the first ball and do the lion's share of the bowling.

"I was comfortably the worst bowler in the audition. Even when I do bowl, I bowl slow. So, to be a fast bowler was very hard. Of course, they were casting us on the basis of our looks as well as how well we played. Of all the people who were there, I looked most like a fast bowler. It was a question of physique."

Asked how he coped with the pressures of bowling, he replies, "Cricket is easy to fake because the action comes in bursts that you can break up. I was able to do a pretty good impression of the run-up and bowling action, as long as I didn't pay any attention to where the ball went. Besides, I also had a stuntman to do some of the bowling. There were diagrams showing where everyone should be at any point of time. One guy's job was to run around with a sheaf of papers, moving people around like chess pieces to make sure of the continuity."

Shooting the cricket match was very complicated. In fact, it took six weeks to film the three-day match. "It's a slow process getting everything exactly right," England reveals. "Even the best cricketers can't do exactly what they require every single time."

England says there were some unforgettable moments of acute tension. Among them were the sequences that required the on-set presence of his fellow fast bowler, actor Ray Eves. The trouble was that Eves was struck down with gastric disorders from the moment he arrived in Bhuj. "No trip to India is complete without a story of that kind," says England.

"All of us were struck down by gastric disorders of some kind. Ray was most badly stricken. Mostly people get it after a week of setting down. But Ray managed to get ill on the plane itself. He wanted to prepare himself by having the curry on the flight. He spent most of his stay in Bhuj in the hospital on a drip with a bloke from the unit on a walkie-talkie.

"They'd call and say they needed Ray to bowl. So they'd unplug him, put him in a jeep and take him to the location. He'd bowl, and then they'd take him back to the hospital, where he'd get plugged in again. Also he was losing a cap off his teeth, so he was on painkillers all the time."

There were also moments of pure, unadulterated humour that had cast and crew in splits. One of the British actors with no prior knowledge of Hindi was persuaded to try out some words from the script on a local taxidriver. The result was a stammered rendition of, "Tum gulam log hamesha joota ke neeche rahogey [You slaves will always live beneath our boots], which mesmerised the taxidriver trying to make sense of what the strange gora visitor was saying.

England looks back with genuine fondness of his time in Bhuj, although his memories are tinged with sadness. The building in which cast and crew were accommodated, Sahajananad Towers, was knocked down during the earthquake six months after they left. "It was the biggest building in the place and it collapsed only six months after the whole unit left," England recalls. "I know that Aamir was involved in providing relief and finance to rebuild one of the villages that was destroyed. There were many people from Bhuj who were involved in the filming --- either as extras in the film or for providing hospitality."

His happiest memories of Bhuj are on the last day of filming when the British actors took on the Indian cast and crew in a cricket match that he terms a one-day international. "Before we left, we played a real cricket match on that same pitch in Bhuj. It's a beautiful place to play, a beautiful sunny day and our own cricket ground in the middle of the desert. If you want to know who won, you'll have to read my book!"