With a career that has been active for over three decades, Suniel Shetty is known for his roles in blockbusters like the Hera Pheri series and has been a source of entertainment to audiences across generations, playing roles across the spectrum. Recently, perhaps unbeknownst to many, the actor-producer has donned a different cap as an entrepreneur; he has become the owner of Pune Stallions, a gaming team that participated in the recently-concluded second season of Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL), held at Koramangala Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru.
Shetty, whose team had been out of contention for some time, still attended the tense final between Mumbai Grizzlies and Chennai Falcons, with the latter going on to win. The Bollywood star, interestingly, is far from a nominal owner; before making his public appearance, he went backstage to observe the teams and their plans, along with Sara Tendulkar, who, as the owner of Mumbai Grizzlies, was also in attendance, accompanied by her mother, Anjali Tendulkar. Shetty, who was enthused by the rise of the sport, made no effort to conceal his zeal. “I think gaming has taken over the world. I went backstage to understand... it’s incredible and very hard. From the corner of my eyes I saw Sara [Tendulkar] getting nervous and biting her nails,” he quipped.
What perhaps gripped Shetty the most was that the players playing the game had their ‘likenesses’ copied to the video game, Real Cricket 24. This is pivotal because they are seeing themselves, playing on the screen, further dissolving the divide between ‘real’ and virtual cricket. “It’s their voices and their own images. So when you play, you’re the one who’s being projected on screen. The world is seeing you. With a game like EA Sports FC [a football video game franchise] , you have the gamers playing with likenesses of real footballers. So for the kids, that talent is never showcased. This is the first time ever that I’ve seen that the kids, and who they are, are being showcased, and that’s the beauty of this league,” he said.
For Shetty, the father-in-law of KL Rahul, who has been playing pivotal knocks in the ongoing IPL, owning an e-cricket franchise does not seem as far-fetched. Moreover, as he reveals, his son Ahan Shetty is ‘obsessed with e-sports’, specifically football. “It is an alternative career. And you’ve seen that with IPL [and youths being ushered into cricket careers]. This is exactly how I see it. Once you’re into a sport, whether it’s on the field or otherwise, once you’re part of a team, you learn to lose together and win together; it shows a lot of character,” he concluded.