Anushka Sharma shared the first look and teaser of the Netflix movie Chakda Xpress that is based on the life of the former Indian Captain Jhulan Goswami. In the teaser, Anushka, who portrays Jhulan, leads her team into the cricket field with empty stands and she makes a promise, “Today,we have put our names on the jersey, tomorrow you will know who we are.”
Posting the teaser on Instagram, Anushka wrote, “It is a really special film because it is essentially a story of tremendous sacrifice. Chakda Xpress is inspired by the life and times of former Indian captain Jhulan Goswami and it will be an eye-opener into the world of women’s cricket. At a time when Jhulan decided to become a cricketer and make her country proud on the global stage, it was very tough for women to even think of playing the sport. This film is a dramatic retelling of several instances that shaped her life and also women’s cricket.”
She further added, “From support systems, to facilities, to having a stable income from playing the game, to even having a future in cricket – very little propelled women of India to take up cricket as a profession. Jhulan had a fighting and extremely uncertain cricketing career and she stayed motivated to make her country proud. She strived to change the stereotype that women can’t make a career out of playing cricket in India so that the next generation of girls had a better playing field. Her life is a living testimony that passion and perseverance triumphs over any or all adversities and Chakda Xpress is the most definitive look into the not so rosy world of women’s cricket back then. There is still a lot of work to be done and we have to empower them with the best so that the sport can flourish for women in India.”
Anushka ended the caption by writing, “We should all salute Jhulan and her team-mates for revolutionizing women’s cricket in India. It is their hard work, their passion and their undefeated mission to bring attention to women’s cricket that has turned things around for generations to come. As a woman, I was proud to hear Jhulan’s story and it is an honour for me to try and bring her life to audiences and cricket lovers. As a cricketing nation, we have to give our women cricketers their due. Jhulan’s story is truly an underdog story in the history of cricket in India and the film is our celebration of her spirit.”
Jhulan also shared the teaser on her profile and captioned the post as, “When you represent India, that’s all that is on your mind. Tum desh ke liye khel rahe ho, apne liye nahi. 11 women playing to place Team India’s name in history. It doesn’t matter if they said ladkiyan cricket nahi khel sakti. It doesn’t matter if sometimes a man’s accomplishments are placed above your own. It doesn’t matter if the stadiums are empty. When you pull up on to the pitch to bowl, all you see is the opponent holding the cricket bat and the stumps you need to knock out.”
