Bollywood meets Basketball: Top 10 Moments

Making Khiladi look like a kidAkshay Kumar, one of India’s biggest action movie stars, is well known for his love of martial arts, emphasis on functional workouts as against gymming and doing his own stunts in all his films. To prepare for his upcoming sports drama flick, ‘Akki’ come on record to say that he will look upto basketballer Satnam Singh Bhamara for inspiration. Followers of Indian basketball already know about Satnam Singh Bhamara, the 18-year-old, 7ft 2 inch phenom from Punjab who is currently training at the IMG Academy in Florida, USA on a full sports scholarship. The Khiladi had met Bhamara during his recent visit to Bradenton, Florida, where his niece is training to become a basketball player. The Bollywood star was hugely impressed by the Punjabi baller and shared a post on his Facebook page hailing Bhamara as “India’s most influential basketball player”: Satnam is not only incredibly tall but unbelievably dedicated & talented at what he does here at the IMG Basketball school. What he's been through to get where he is, is an inspiration in itself. He reminded me of me, when nothing but ur dreams matter. I wish this lovely young man a super successful life & I urge many of you to follow him & learn from his story. I've been in America for nearly a month now, but when I leave, I'll be taking his hardship & training myself like a true champ for my next film, he's really given me the spirit to fight on...Not surprisingly, in a country where movies and cricket are national pastimes, this single post by Akshay Kumar drew nearly 2.5 lakh likes, 4000+ comments and 5000+ shares (almost equalling the FB likes of our entire Basketball India page!). Talk about celebrity power.Seeing Kumar’s interest in hoops got basketball keedas like us thinking: what are the top 10 moments when Bollywood celebrities enacted/spoke/praised or tweeted anything to do with basketball? Here’s our list of top 10 ‘Bollywood meets Basketball’ moments (plus three notable mentions). Feel free to agree/disagree or add your own to this list.*Note: The following list is restricted to Bollywood only and does not cover regional language basketball films in Tamil and Marathi.

#1 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

This Hindi blockbuster starring King of Romance Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukherjee is single handedly responsible for ruining the image of basketball in India. Sure, you may win some brownie points by letting your girlfriend beat you in hoops, but the number of travelling violations is just outrageous. To make matters worse, with over one million visits,this is the most viewed basketball video in India. Wheres my gun, I want to shoot myself in the head.

#2 Ranbir Kapoor goes to a Knicks game

The Barfi star, aswe know, is a huge football fan and is the face of NDTVs Marks for Sports campaign. Soit was a pleasant surprise to learn of his visit to Manhattans iconic Madison Square Garden arena in 2010, where he caught up with NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Nate Robinson while on a break from shooting Anjaana Anjaani. The Kapoor scion considers New York City his second home, having studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

#3 Lara Datta and Dino Morea meet Kobe and the Lakers

This one was a classic B meets B moment, probably because this was the first recorded instance of Indian celebrities being introduced to NBA players. In 2008, former Miss Universe Lara Dutta and Dino Morea had travelled to Los Angeles to film an NBA Special segment for ESPN Star Sports (India).

Morea, who has played basketball duringhis college days, was taken through the mechanics of freethrow shooting by then Lakers Assistant coach Kurt Rambis. Dutta though, preferred to try her hand at cheerleading (God bless her soul!). The two were even gifted customised autographed Laker jerseys from the one and only Kobe Bryant.

In subsequent interviews, Bryant has talked about always wanting to come to India and being aware of cricket. Thankfully, Indianreporters haven't yet asked him whether he knowsSachin Tendulkar.#IhateKobeBryant is the last thing we want trending on Twitter.

#4 Rannvijay Singh of MTV Roadies fame

The MTV Roadies star spent most of his college days balling at Delhi University. In fact, he was so passionate about basketball that he has been quoted as calling it his first love. Donny has played basketball at the state and national level and in fact gainedadmission to the BCom degree course at Hansraj College throughsports quota. At one time, he even harboured hopes of playing professionally like Michael Jordan! Earlier this year, the ex-roadie enjoyed aworkout with ex-Sacramento Kings point guard Isaiah Thomas during his visit to Mumbai.

#5 Neetu Chandra was a national level basketball player

Neetu who? Fair question. But basketball fans in India are ultra cheap. We are so hungry for any attention to hoops that we are willing to adopt any and every celebrity as a passionate fan. But in all fairness, the actress sure knows how to set screens and can talk sensibly about the state of basketball in India. Chandra even shook a leg with retired Chicago Bulls stars Horace Grant and Ron Harper during their visit to India last year as part of the national finals of the NBA 3X3 Jam.

#6 Abhishek Bachchan\'s love of hoops

Bachchan Jr bleeds basketball and calls it his favourite sport! He used to play as a forward in his school and college days and has watched Laker games in the US. On the show UTV Live my life, he got two of his fans to play with him and showed off his left handed jumpshot. Recently, he also launched the NBA-India online store. Outside of basketball, the Laker fan has starred in the football based period film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey and owns the Jaipur Pink Panthers franchise in the Indian Pro Kabaddi League.

Incidentally, he also absolutely killed it wearing what looked like a modified purple and gold Lakerjersey in one of the songs of Bluffmaster.

#7 Basketball scene in the rain between Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai

Roshan returns with a bang (or should we say splash?) in Dhoom 2! Unlike football, the one drawback that basketball has is that it really is not meant to be played in the rain. Also, it is not meant to be played by our Bollywood superstars (except maybe Abhishek Bachchan, Rannvijay Singh or Dino Morea- see next slides). Unfortunately, in thisheist movie, rain, Roshan and Rai combined to give us an unremarkable one on one basketball sequence. Kudos to the left hand layups though.

#8 Koi Mil Gaya

Hrithik Roshan plays the manchild in this 2003 sci-fi film that can only be described as the Indianised take onwhat happenswhenSpace Jam meets ET. Save us the plight of explaining the nine minute plus basketball scene and watch it yourself. The commentary appears to be in Russian. But we doubt if the dialogues matter one bit.

#9 Preity Zinta\'s dreams of an international celebrity girls basketball team

Did you know that back in 2009 Zinta wanted to start a celebrity all girls international basketball team called Dream Girls? Coming from an army background (dad was in the military) she claims tohave been an all round sportswoman who excelled in gymnastics, karate, basketball and rifle shooting.

The actor appears to have shelved her basketball plans now and is focused on managing the Kings XI Punjab IPL franchise.

#10 Ranveer Singh during Koffee with Karan

On the show Koffee With Karan, the Ram-Leela starmade quite a few obvious basketball references. If you see the videofrom minute 37:00 onwards, he is heard exclaiming slam dunk, swish from way out, nothing but net baby! during the rapid fire round.

This was a major blink-and-you-miss-it moment. If it wasn't for a friend of mine who pointed this out, I would have missed it. This is a perfect example of howpsychotic basketball fans in India are constantly on the look out for any and every hoops related utterancein mainstream media. (If you are wondering why guys like us watch Koffee with Karan thats another discussion altogether.)

#11 Notable mentions: Nikhil Chinappa on MTV Select

Back in the 90s when MTV VJs were considered the coolest people alive, Nikhil Chinappa wowed everybody with his popular dial-in show MTV Select. Finding pride of place onthe show with Chinappa was a mini-hoop and basketball which he used to fool around with while interacting with callers.

#12 Notable Mentions: The Complan Ad feat. Shahid Kapoor and Ayesha Takia

Not Bollywood per se, but theres no denying that these instantly recognisable commercials with their iconic taglines Im a Complan Girl, and Im a Complan boy! are centred around basketball. These ads have been faulted for their exaggerated claims that the health drink can make children grow twice as tall. Further the Complan adverts constantly fuel the wrong stereotype that you have to be tall to succeed in basketball.

#13 Notable Mentions: Miss India 2008 Simran Kaur Mundi was a national level basketball player

Simran Kaur Mundi is a Punjabi model and actress who won the Miss India pageant in 2008. She has been a national level basketball player before switching to the entertainment industry. She starred in the 2011 Hindi romance film Jo Hum Chahein. Mundi continues to play recreational hoops once a week to stay fit, with fellow actor and hoops lover Neetu Chandra for company.