Sachin: A Billion Dreams - All you need to know about director James Erskine

James Erskine did full justice to the life and career of Sachin Tendulkar in his docudrama

Making a film about the biggest sportsperson a country has ever seen is an improbable task in itself. Sachin Tendulkar, in India, is more than just an emotion as the legacy of the Mumbai-born batsman is so huge that a two-hour long film might not do justice to his life and career.

However, James Erskine, the famous sports docudrama director did full justice in his most awaited documentary of the year - Sachin: A Billion Dreams. 

The director has made numerous sports docudramas in his long career and when he was asked about the reason behind making such kind of films, he said, "Sport intersects with culture, so they’re not simply films about athletes just being athletes, they’re about films where the athlete transcends, transforms, or changes the way that we’re thinking about things. I think sports in our culture are under-appreciated. However, sports are one of the few things that unify people."

Just as Erskine said, no one in this great country united millions and millions of people like Sachin Tendulkar did. 

The London-born filmmaker has directed 32 movies and TV shows and has also produced and written numerous scripts for documentaries and serials. His best work includes a film about England's journey in the FIFA 1990 World Cup called, "One Night in Turin"; critically acclaimed cricket documentary, "From the Ashes" and much more.

His best work before a film on Sachin was considered to be "Pantani: Accidental death of a cyclist" based on the life of Tour De France winner Italian cyclist Marco Pantani who died because of a cocaine overdose. 

James Erskine was nominated for the highly rated Emmy awards for his suspense series, The Human Face in 2001. He won the best feature film in the San Francisco fearless tales awards for "EMR" - a thriller movie he made back in 2004. Erskine also won awards at the Washington Festival and in Germany for the same movie. 

For Sachin’s biopic, Erskine spent months with the Tendulkar family and also talked with each of his teammates in the Indian team; from Kapil Dev to Virat Kohli. He also talked at length with the man himself and his friends who Sachin knew since he was three years old.

Erskine remarked that winning the World Cup in 2011 was the awakening moment for Tendulkar and he revolved his docudrama around that incident. 

The movie provided us with a well-researched insight into the life of the greatest cricketer the game has ever seen. The director makes a brilliant point when he says that, "Sachin narrated us the problems he faced but his wife, Anjali told us how they lived through it."

This is what the film was all about - getting to relive the moments and also getting an insight on some personal facts about the Messiah of 1.3 billion people.