5 Indian cricketers who acted in Bollywood films

Shikhar Dhawan, who recently stood in as India's captain for the ODI series against South Africa, is all set to make his Bollywood debut.

The senior batter shared a trailer for the film 'Double XL' with Huma Qureshi on Instagram on Wednesday. He is shown as a high-profile celebrity who walks on the red carpet to ask for a dance with Qureshi, but it turns out to be the latter's dream.

Cricket and Bollywood are often called the twin engines of the Indian entertainment industry. Many movies have been made with cricket as a subject, but popular international players acting in the movies has been rather rare.

Below are five of the few top cricketers who've had one or more appearances on the big screen:

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#1 Yuvraj Singh

Apart from 11778 runs and 148 wickets in international cricket, Yuvraj Singh has two film appearances to his name as well. The Arjuna Awardee featured in the Punjabi movies 'Putt Sardaran De' and 'Mehndi Shagna Di' in 1992 as an 11-year-old.

In a scene in the latter, an innocent Yuvraj is shown as a kid arguing with his mother to let him go to school and play hockey and kabaddi. But she considers sports useless and wants him to focus on taking revenge for his brother's death.

Apart from acting, Yuvraj also worked as a voiceover artist in the 2008 animated film 'Jumbo'.

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#2 Kapil Dev

1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev has featured in multiple Bollywood movies. In almost all cameos, he's shown as a down-to-earth, jovial character who is respected and looked upon as an inspiration by everyone in India.

In Karanjeet Saluja's 'Chain Kulii Ki Main Kulii', a popular film among the '90s and 2000s kids in India, he played himself and signed protagonist Karan's 'lucky bat'.

In David Dhawan’s 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi', he comes in as a guest of honor in an India-Pakistan-friendly cricket match. In the scene, despite getting his microphone snatched, Kapil convinces female lead Rani (played by Priyanka Chopra) to accept Sameer's (played by Salman Khan) marriage proposal in front of the crowd.

In 'Iqbal', directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, Kapil surprises Iqbal, the cricket-obsessed deaf and mute boy, by visiting and motivating him with his words.

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#3 Harbhajan Singh

A widely-loved cricketer, Harbhajan Singh also made many appearances in movies, including in the same scene as Kapil in 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi' and the Punjabi films, 'Bhaji in Problem' and 'Second Hand Husband'.

However, his first lead role came in 2021 with the film 'Friendship'. The sports comedy action film directed by John Paul Raj and Sham Surya covers the story of two friends who go out of their way to get a sexual assault victim to get justice.

The Indian off-spinner then also acted in the Karthik Yogi-directed 'Dikkiloona'.

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#4 Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan, one of the best fast-bowling all-rounders India has ever produced and is now a known voice in commentary, made his film debut in 2022 with 'Cobra'.

Written and directed by R. Ajay Gnanamuthu, the psychological thriller saw Pathan playing the role of an Interpol agent and receiving immense praise on social media.

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#5 Sunil Gavaskar

Perhaps the most popular story of a cricketer acting in a movie is of the Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar. His lead role in the 1980 Marathi film 'Savli Premachi' was one of the very few instances of sportspersons acting in a film during their career.

The movie didn't do very well but Gavaskar made another cameo in the Naserruddin Shah-starrer 'Malamaal' in which he played himself.

He defeated Naserruddin's character Rajkumar in a friendly celebrity cricket match.

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