International footballers for Ajay Devgn’s film

Footballers from over 11 countries around the world from Australia, Finland, France, Spain, Vietnam, Japan and Thailand along with some Indian footballers will be part of Maidaan, starring Ajay Devgn.  Ajay plays the role of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in the film.

“Filmmaker Amit Sharma was keen to cast real footballers rather than actors because they really did not need actors according to the way the screenplay was written and rather wanted good footballers. So they decided to go in for real footballers,” says a source.

But then, there was a school of thought that told them to hire popular players as well as those who play for the big clubs. “But then, the filmmakers overruled it because it would not have been a good idea not just from the narrative point of view to cast football stars in the film but also from the budgeting viewpoint. The film’s cost would have shot up. So they referred to cast, real and good footballers rather than cast football stars from various parts of the world,” says our source.