‘I batted longer than Sanju Samson; my face turned red’: Antony Varghese recalls intense cricket shoot

KOCHI: Actor Antony Varghese Pepe said he never expected to spend so many hours batting when he took to the cricket field while acting in Dulquer Salmaan’s film I'm Game. Speaking in an interview with an online media outlet, the actor recalled his experience of shooting the cricket sequences for the film.

Antony Varghese plays Vicky, a cricketer, in the film. The actor already has experience playing in the Celebrity Cricket League. However, he said getting the opportunity to play a cricketer on screen came as a surprise.

Major portions of the film were shot at the Greenfield Stadium in Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram. Among his memories from the shoot, it was the long hours of batting that stood out the most.

“A large part of the film was shot inside the stadium. I have batted for longer at the Kariavattom stadium than Sanju Samson has. I am telling the truth. One day, I started batting at 2 pm and continued until 2 am the next morning,” Pepe said.

The actor also recalled how physically exhausting the continuous batting became.

“By the end, my face had turned completely red. When it became clear that continuing the shoot could cause problems, Jimshi chettan (cinematographer Jimshi Khalid) told me to stop. He said that if I continued, the bat might fall from my hands. So, they called it a wrap,” Pepe said.

Pepe also joked that his co-stars were jealous of him because he got the chance to bat inside a real stadium.

“My co-stars were jealous of me that day. Getting to bat in a stadium is a big deal, right? But after some time, I reached a point where I was so tired that I was ready to tell anyone to come and take the bat and continue. That’s how exhausted I was,” the actor added.