We all know him as the popular musician-rapper Slow Cheeta. But after Maidaan, chances are bright of him also being known as actor Chaitanya Sharma. The young gun plays legendary footballer PK Banerjee in the film, headlined by Ajay Devgn, that brings alive the glorious days of Indian soccer in the 1950s-60s. t2 caught up with Chaitanya for a chat.

Maidaan has been in the making for five years. Now when it is about to release, what are the emotions like?

In school, I would study before exams. But just before the exam, I used to leave everything and say: ‘Let’s have fun!’ I didn’t really bother with what would happen at the last minute. I feel my school days have come back. I am surfing in very good territory... I am excited because we have given so much of our lives to Maidaan. We started shooting in March 2019 and it is releasing more than five years later. We saw Covid twice, we went through a cyclone that blew away our sets. So much has gone into it and to think that it is finally coming out and becoming everyone’s property to watch is so exciting!

What does being a part of Maidaan and playing such a pivotal role mean to you?

What this film has done is way beyond what I expected in terms of the opportunities that it opened for me. Apart from the acting bit, Maidaan has given me a chance to write a song for A.R. Rahman. For a 10/11-year-old who decided to be a musician after hearing his music, I am really proud... it doesn’t get bigger than that. That song was a chant that I made for the football team. It was never supposed to be in the film. It was a chant that the coach, Dinesh Nair, a Mumbai City FC official, who was training us, told me to make in order to boost the morale of the actors.

We needed it because after every training session, all of us would feel that our bodies were broken. I had to make a chant that we could say at the top of every morning and go back to the field with the same energy. The training process was so hard. I don’t think any Bollywood film has taken 16 boys through this kind of physical transformation... it is unbelievable! After a training session, I was in the shower all sore and the first line that came to my head was that you can kill us today but you will find us back here tomorrow. We used that chant as a prayer of sorts every day.

And then, one day, I was told that it was going to be in the soundtrack of the film! It has been used in one of the most important sequences in the film. What Eye Of The Tiger was to Rocky, Team India hai hum is to Maidaan. For Mr Rahman to come in and put his magic all over it... it has been an experience of a lifetime for me as a musician and a lyric writer.

And then imagine getting to play PK Banerjee, one of the biggest legends of the game, not only in India but also internationally! I have been acting since 2011 and doing theatre for many years now. I have acted in web series, TV shows and films but the way life has turned out is that the musician Slow Cheeta is a lot more famous than the actor Chaitanya Sharma. No one considers me an actor yet. They think I am a musician who also acts. I feel like I can do both and Maidaan is the first time where I can flex both skill sets.

How did you bag the film?

I was shooting for Gully Boy and also playing in this amateur football league in Mumbai. In one of the matches, things got very close and I scored a hattrick of goals. As luck would have it, the AD (assistant director) for Maidaan had come to watch that day, hoping to scout for some actors for the film. It was the only day I ever scored a hattrick and I also went crazy... so he managed to see me at my playing and my dramatic best! (Laughs) I was asked to audition after that.

I gave about five tests in five months. All the main actors were auditioning for the same part — that of PK Banerjee — and so I had no idea who they were looking at me to play, if I got selected.

But I was also aware of the fact that this was a massive role and honestly, way out of my league. In such a huge Bollywood film, one would imagine that such roles would go to prominent, established names. PK Banerjee was the top goal scorer of the 1962 Asia Cup... to get to play him was too good to be true!

For me, this was a shot in the dark that really hit bullseye. I had to deliver an entire monologue in Bengali because they wanted to see if I could talk in Bengali if push came to shove. Thankfully, my legs do most of the talking in the film!

I am a massive football supporter. I support Manchester United.... My honeymoon ended in Old Trafford, but I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t know much about Indian football. The moment I landed the part, I started reading up about the team and players and it is mind-blowing what these guys achieved at that time.

The real-life story is so cinematic and unimaginable that we didn’t have to change anything. Sometimes, the script writes itself so well.

What did your prep involve?

One was the physical aspect of training day in day out. We used to be on the ground six to seven hours a day, followed by the gym. We would laugh and joke and keep ourselves entertained because we would be dead tired and had to do that to keep ourselves from collapsing. We would have acting classes, then training again...

Total boot camp!

Oh ya! But we were totally into it! We started calling each other by our characters’ names. We played like a team, we lived together like a team.

Everyone put in all they had. I can guarantee that you pause any frame and you won’t see a false note on any player’s face because we were really living the part of these players. They played against the world. They were underdogs, no one thought these 16 boys would be able to pull this off.

PK Banerjee visited the sets of the film. What did that mean to you?

It was the most magical day for me on set. When they were casting, they asked PK sir if he had any criteria for the person who would play the part. He just said that person had to be ‘lightning fast’ because PK sir was known for his unimaginable speed. He also said that the actor should have massive legs because they called him ‘thundering thighs’! (Laughs) I had to work my ass off to make sure my legs looked like that.

The day he came on set, we were shooting a scene where I was zipping through the air and he was on a wheelchair, and it was ironical that I was playing him. About 50-60 years ago, that was him moving with lightning speed.

And he couldn’t even walk then. I was in tears, I was so overwhelmed. I was looking at a legend who used to tear nets to score goals. He was not in the best condition, but he signed a copy of his book. It took him some time to sign, but he wrote his full name ‘Pradeep Kumar Banerjee’ even though his hands were shaking. He did not give up then just like he had never given up earlier.

I knew I was PK Banerjee and I had to live up to that. I quit sugar, I quit everything. I went down to about eight per cent body fat. Covid happened in between but I stayed like that, disciplined myself because I knew I had to get back to playing him. And I have remained like that.

You have said that your wife, actor Shweta Tripathi, is your biggest critic and cheerleader. Has she watched Maidaan yet?

No, she hasn’t. We plan to watch it together at the premiere because it will be so special for the two of us. I always consider myself lucky that I get to wake up every day with my inspiration next to me. She is the reason I could do what I did for those four years while shooting Maidaan. I was physically and mentally broken with so much exhaustion. It would take me 10 minutes to get out of bed every day. But this light bulb of a human being was the medicine for all my scars. I give her a lot of credit for being able to do what I do.