Million Dollar Arm is a biographical sports drama based on the true story of baseball pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. Actor Pitobash Tripathy is a part of the film directed by Craig Gillespie. He talks to Divya Kaushik about working with actors like Jon Hamm and Alan Arkin
Rinku Singh was born to a truck driver in a village in Bhadohi. He was one of nine siblings who all lived in the family’s one-room house. Singh threw javelin and played cricket as a child. He was a junior national javelin medalist. In early 2008, Singh entered an Indian reality television show, The Million Dollar Arm. The contest was created by American sports agent JB Bernstein to find the individual in the country who could throw the fastest and most accurate baseball. Having never heard of baseball before, Singh won the contest out of over 37,000 participants after throwing 88 miles per hour. The grand prize for the contest was $1,00,000. After winning the contest, Singh and Dinesh Patel, the runner up of the contest, travelled to los Angeles where they trained with University of Southern California pitching coach Tom House. Both played with the Pittsburgh Pirates Organisation and were the first Indian nationals to sign a contract with the major American sports club. Their rag to riches story was like a perfect film script and the idea was picked up by Hollywood producers. The film Million Dollar Arm directed by Craig Gillespie stars Jon Hamm as Bernstein, Madhur Mittal as Dinesh Patel, Suraj Sharma as Rinku Singh and Pitobash Tripathy as Deepesh Solanki, the one who helped Bernstein find the two players in India. The movie which is majorly shot in lucknow, Agra and Mumbai will release in Indian theatres on May 9.
Pitobash, who has worked in films like Shor in the City and I Am Kalam, says that the film is a sports drama and follows the real story as it is. “It is an inspiring tale and a lot about sports and dedication. I did not know about this story until the day I got a call from the casting directors of the film to give auditions for a ‘Hollywood film’. After going through over 15 rounds of audition I was chosen and then I was told about this story. Every character apart from my own has a real name in the film. My character not only assists Bernstein in scouting talent, but later when the three travel to US he becomes their translator. In return, he wants to learn more about baseball, the game which he is passionate about,” informs Pitobash, who feels lucky to have an opportunity to work in a Hollywood project at an early stage in his career. “It is good to see that there are so many experiments happening in our film industry and due to those experiments we have diverse roles and characters to play. It is because of these roles that we are getting international acclaim. I am proud that I got a chance to represent my country through this film,” he adds.
The film was being shot last year in May when it was peak of summer. Pitobash says that he was amazed to see how professional and grounded actors like Jon Hamm and Alan Arkin are. “It was a learning experience working with them. These people never complained and enjoyed every bit of shooting here. The film is all about passion and enthusiasm for sports and the actors were always high-spirited to bring out that passion on screen. Also, I found out that their work happens in disciplined and organised way. Most of the things are done on papers to avoid any controversies later,” says Pitobash.
The actor is hopeful that the film will open better avenues for him. “But for me it has never been about money or fame. I have always looked out for diverse and different characters and I only hope that I will keep getting exciting roles now,” he ends.