On Sunday, Sachin Tendulkar released the video “The Sports Heroes”, in which he along with Sunil Gavaskar, Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi, Dhanraj Pillay, Bhaichung Bhutia, Gagan Narang and Sushil Kumar sing India’s national anthem.
The video, directed by Abhijit Panse and produced by former India cricketer Nilesh Kulkarni, is aimed to inspire the younger generation towards sports.
Nilesh Kulkarni to TOIThis is for the first time that our national anthem (Jana Gana Mana), will feature the sporting heroes of India, because we feel that the entire nation gets united when it’s played, and there is no better way to reach out to millions of people than this. So, we feel proud that we’ve come up with this initiative.
Speaking to the media at the launch of the video, Sachin Tendulkar even shared his memories from his playing days when the team sang the national anthem before a match.
Sachin TendulkarWhen you sing the ‘Jana Gana Mana’, your head is always held high, but when you sing it (standing) in the centre of the ground, then...seena chauda ho jata hai (chest swells with pride). But it (singing of national anthem) goes to a different level altogether, when you are playing against Pakistan in 2003 World Cup (in Centurion), standing inside the stadium, in the middle of the group, with 60,000 people singing ‘Jana Gana Mana’.