Tamil film Polama Oorgolam has 20 veteran footballers acting in it

Nagaraj Bai Dhurailingam

, who has worked with filmmakers like Parthiban Radhakrishnan, Vignesh Shivan, H Vinoth and Kalaaprabhu, is making his directorial debut with the film

Polama Oorgolam

, which will have 20 veteran

football

players in its cast.

“The film is based on a true event that happened in North Madras. It is a road movie revolving around interesting incidents that happen along the way when a veteran football team travels from Chennai to Andhra Pradesh to take part in a tournament,” says Nagaraj. He adds that the film’s hero Praboojit, who has been part of films like Petta, Suttupidikka Utharavu and Jagame Thandhiram, and heroine Shakthi Mahendra, who has trained at the late Balu
Mahendra’s film school, play characters who join this group at various stages in the film.

Talking about how he roped in the real-life footballers, the director states, “I’m a North Madras paiyyan, so I know many of the football clubs there. I went to the matches that these players played and picked them according to the characters that I wanted.” He describes the experience of getting them to perform in front of the camera a difficult one. “They were all shy and camera conscious. But at the same time, they were also cooperative and dedicated, which helped. The film will have scenes of them playing matches and they will be very engrossing,” he adds.