Gold fact check: Truth vs fiction in Akshay Kumar film

Akshay Kumar stars in the Independence Day 2018 release Gold. The film is directed by Reema Kagti and is a fictionalised retelling of the first Olympic gold win by independent India in 1948.

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Gold fact check: Truth vs fiction in Akshay Kumar film
How much of Gold is true and how much is fiction? Akshay Kumar in a poster of Gold

In Short

  • Gold starring Akshay Kumar is doing wonders at the box office.
  • The Reema Kagti-directed film hit the screens on August 15, 2018.
  • Gold is a fictional retelling of the true story of independent India's first Olympic gold win.

Not everything that glitters is Gold. Akshay Kumar's latest box-office hit might be able to vouch for that. The film, directed by Reema Kagti, is doing wonders at the ticket windows for the story of independent India's first Olympic gold win.

But how much of Gold is truth and how much is fiction?

Before Gold could even get to the theatres, director Reema Kagti, Akshay Kumar and pretty much the entire team of the film clarified that the film was a heavily fictionalised version of the actual events.

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In November 2016, Gold director Kagti told the media, "My film would be a fictional take on what actually happened. The game of hockey would feature prominently in the plot. But there will also be a strong human drama playing at the forefront. And it wouldn't be just the Olympics victory in 1948 we will be looking at. Gold will look at 12 crucial years in India's history."

Kagti stayed true to her word. She and screenplay writer Rajesh Devraj took a lot of creative liberties to make the story of India bringing home the first hockey gold as an independent nation interesting. The film Gold, as a result, does tell the story of the historic Olympic gold win, but makes it more nail-biting than what probably actually happened.

My film would be a fictional take on what actually happened. The game of hockey would feature prominently in the plot. But there will also be a strong human drama playing at the forefront.
- Reema Kagti, director of Gold

So what really happened in the time in between Berlin Olympics 1936 and London Olympics 1948?

We separate fact from fiction.

IS TAPAN DAS A REAL PERSON?

Akshay Kumar plays Tapan Das, the Indian hockey team's manager in Gold

No. Akshay Kumar's character in Gold is a role that takes its inspiration from Kishan Lal. In 1947, Kishan donned the Indian colours as the second-in-command to Dhyan Chand on a tour of East Africa. Kishan captained the Indian hockey team in the 1948 Olympics and marched out with the gold medal.

Kishan Lal. Photo: Wikipedia

The man was fondly addressed as 'Dada' in hockey circles back in the day. He had a gift of talent spotting. The field hockey team that played Britain in the 1948 Olympics final was a team curated by Kishan Lal, much like Akshay Kumar's character Tapan Das in Gold.

1936 BERLIN OLYMPICS AND INDIAN TEAM

Akshay Kumar with the team that played the 1936 Olympics in the film Gold

On August 15, 1936, British India defeated Germany 8-1 in the Berlin Olympics finals. India went on to score 8 goals in the final match against Germany and 38 goals in total in the tournament under the captaincy of hockey legend Dhyan Chand. Chand scored 11 goals of India's 38 in the Berlin Olympics.

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Dhyan Chand wrote about the Berlin finals in his autobiography Goal, "When Germany was four goals down, a ball hit Allen's pad and rebounded. The Germans took full advantage of this and made a rush, netting the ball before we could stop it. That was the only goal Germany would score in the match against our eight, and incidentally the only goal scored against India in the entire Olympic tournament. India's goal-getters were Roop Singh, Tapsell and Jaffar with one each, Dara two and myself three."

In Gold, Kunal Kapoor's character Samrat is based on the real-life Dhyan Chand.

The Indian hockey team led by Dhyan Chand at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Photo: Wikipedia

The team that played the finals at Berlin was one that boasted of some of the best hockey players the subcontinent has ever seen. Roop Singh Bais, Richard James Allen, Carlyle Carroll Tapsell, Syed Mohammed Hussain, Baburao Narasappa Nimal, Ernest John Goodsir-Cullen, Joseph Deville Thomas Galibardy, Shaban Shahab-ud-din, Ali Iqtidar Shah Dara, Sayed Mohammad Jaffar Shah were all led by Dhyan Chand in the 1936 Olympics.

WADIA, THE 'FINE PARSI GENTLEMAN'

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In Gold, the character of Wadia is based on Naval Hormusji Tata. A Padma Bhushan recipient, Tata was Ratanji Tata's adopted son and is known more for his contribution to Indian field hockey than anything else. He was the president of the Indian Hockey Federation for 15 years. This man was at the helm of Indian hockey when the team went on to win the 1948 finals. Naval Tata saw the country winning gold in the two consecutive Olympics too, in 1952 and 1956.

1948 LONDON OLYMPICS AND INDIAN TEAM

The Indian team scoring their third goal against Great Britain at the 1948 Olympics final. Photo: Wikipedia

When the world plunged into war in 1939, the 1940 Olympics were cancelled. The next two Olympics also met the same fate as Adolf Hitler ran amok and Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. In 1945, with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs, World War II came to an end. The world limped back to a semblance of normalcy. The 1948 Olympics were announced. The venue: London.

In 1947, when Kishan Lal walked next to Dhyan Chand in East Africa in the Indian colours, the legendary field hockey team from 1936 had all but emptied. With 1947 came the Partition and most of the talented players were partitioned too with many moving to Pakistan.

Kunal Kapoor's character Samrat in Gold is based on hockey legend Dhyan Chand

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Keshav Datt, for example, fled Lahore after the Paritition and his teammate Shah Rukh saw him off at the Lahore station. They met again a year later. At the 1948 London Olympics. Datt as a member of the Indian hockey team and Shah Rukh as his Pakistan counterpart.

The Indian hockey team had to be built again, much like what Reema Kagti shows in Gold.

This new London team comprised Kishan Lal as the captain, Kunwar Digvijay Singh as the vice-captain (Raghubir, Amit Sadh's character in Gold), Leslie Claudius, Walter D'Souza, Keshav Datt, Lawrie Fernandes, Ranganathan Francis, Randhir Singh Gentle, Gerry Glackan, Akhtar Hussain, Patrick Jansen, Amir Kumar, Leo Pinto, Jaswant Singh Rajput, Latif-ur-Rehman, Reginald Rodrigues, Balbir Singh, Grahanandan Singh, Trilochan Singh, Maxie Vaz.

Sunny Kaushal's character Himmat Singh is believed to be inspired by Balbir Singh (who went on to become a hockey legend in his own right and is considered among the world's greatest hockey players since Dhyan Chand).

THE PREPARATION IN THE MONASTERY

When Tapan Das leaves Balarampur in search of a place to train the Indian hockey team, he lands up at the monastery where the players are later trained by Samrat. In reality, it was a little different. The new hockey team prepared for the match in the parade ground of Bombay.

Jaswant Singh Rajput, who played the London finals, said in an interview in 2012, "We trained in the parade ground of Bombay. The grass there was grown long to make the ground heavy, like it would be in England."

1948 SEMI-FINALS

India and Pakistan, both first-time players, were in different pools in the 1948 Olympics. India was in Group A, where it beat Argentina 9-1 and made it to the semi-finals against Netherlands. The Indian team beat Netherlands 2-1 in the semi-finals. Pakistan, which was in Group B, lost the semi-finals to Great Britain 2-0. The possibility of an India-Pakistan final was there, but India got its own sweet revenge at the finals by playing its former colonisers.

1948 LONDON FINALS

India played Britain in the 1948 London Olympics final. The makers of Gold fictionalised the final score to make the match a more thrilling one. India scored 4 goals against Britain's 1. In the film, that score becomes 4-3. India saw the national flag unfurl at the Empire Stadium in Wembley, London, as Jana Gana Mana filled the stadium. The team won its first Olympic gold against Britain.

HIMMAT SINGH, THE SURPRISE PLAYER

Sunny Kaushal as Himmat Singh in Gold

In Gold, Akshay Kumar keeps Sunny Kaushal's character Himmat Singh well-hidden till the final match. Himmat Singh is loosely inspired from hockey legend Balbir Singh. Balbir Singh, like Himmat Singh, was employed with the Punjab Police when he played the 1948 Olympics.

Balbir's first appearance in the 1948 Olympics happened in India's second match, against Argentina. He did not play India's first match against Austria, where the team beat the Austrian team hollow, with a score of 8-0. Keeping Himmat hidden till the absolute final match, however, looks like a fictional touch that the Gold makers added to make the story a little more interesting.

PLAYING BARE-FEET AND RAIN IN 1948 LONDON FINALS

With the Queen of England in the stands, India played a spectacular final against Great Britain on August 12, 1948. The night of August 11 saw heavy rains in Wembley. It drizzled all through August 12. The Pakistan team's third-place play-off against Netherlands was on the same day. The Indian team saw Pakistan struggle on the slushy field.

In Gold, Akshay Kumar's signal to the team to go bare-feet and play is part fiction, part fact. Keshav Datt said in a 2012 interview, "We realised that the grass was so slushy that our Asian style short passes would not work. We decided to go for aerial passes."

However, the Indian team did not take off their shoes. The team did not have to play bare-feet, as footage from the 1948 London hockey finals show.

For Indian hockey, August 12, 1948 is a date writ in gold. And director Reema Kagti and Akshay Kumar ensured this Independence Day that the date is immortalised in public memory too.

(The writer tweets as @ananya116)

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