The most-anticipated film of 2021, ’83,’ was released in cinemas on December 24, 2021. The film was declared tax-free in Delhi, which says a great deal about the film’s potential and booming excellence. Kabir Khan directed the film, which is premised on the Indian team’s World Cup victory and glory in 1983 against the two-time champions West Indies. The director recently confirmed that Amiya Dev, Kapil Dev’s daughter, functioned as an assistant director on the film.
Kabir Khan, the director of 83, recently took to Instagram to applaud the film’s assistant directors. Kabir wrote a note that said, “With all the unprecedented love and appreciation being showered on 83, especially for the attention to detail in the recreation of an era gone by, I have to thank the people who were behind it.” He further added, “A director is as strong as the weakest link amongst his assistant directors. On 83 each of my assistants became my backbone to ensure every ball, every pad, wicket, shot, angle and expression remained authentic and true to the original.”
A fraction of his statement expressed gratitude to all of the assistant directors, including Amiya Dev. The caption read, “My band of ADs on 83 were as exceptional as the love we are getting for the film. A big shout out to… #Moin Shaikh @rahulvohra94 @amiyadev @tora_pg”. Ahead of its release, 83 promised a great performance at the box office. However, it has failed to live up to the hype and marked unimpressive performance in the opening weekend.
The filmmaker mentioned that having Amiya on his team aided him greatly during the filming of his biographical drama. Kabir Khan also stated that whenever they required Kapil Dev to do something in the context of the film, they only tried to bring Amiya forward. The filmmaker also stated that Kapil Dev never said ‘no’ to his baby girl, Amiya and that this relationship between the father-daughter duo was pivotal in the film’s production. He elaborated: “Kapil Paaji’s daughter Amiya was my assistant in 83 and anything we wanted to be done from him, we just had to communicate it through her. He couldn’t say no to Amiya for anything.”
The director remembered how he hoped for Kapil Dev’s cameo in the film, and it was Amiya who persuaded and assisted her father with all of the acting elements involved in front of the camera. Kabir Khan lavishly praised Amiya’s contribution in 1983, saying: “It was a very spontaneous decision to have Kapil Dev on the screen for a shot. We didn’t want it to appear gimmicky, and it isn’t.”
At the end of the interview, Kabir Khan recounted several occasions when Amiya Dev managed to pull him and his entire crew out of chaos and doubt about the minor details of the 1983 World Cup. Amiya, according to the director, would call her father, Kapil Dev, anytime they needed to know about tiny details of the legendary tournament. He stated: “Each time we needed verification of some detail from the 1983 match, we would make her call up her father and his colleagues from the World Cup. It could be something as trivial as the colour of a player’s gloves on the field that historic day in 1983…We had to get every detail right. We have thousands of people out there with every detail of the match etched vividly in their memory. We didn’t want to be caught on the wrong foot.”
For the lesser-known, Kapil Dev married his longtime girlfriend, Romi Bhatia, in 1980 and welcomed a lovely daughter, Amiya Dev, into their lives in 1996.
