With the inaugural Rugby Premier League (RPL) on at Mumbai’s Andheri Sports Complex till June 29, Rahul Bose sounded like a fulfilled man when t2 called him on Tuesday morning. Besides being an acclaimed actor, Rahul’s passion for sports is well-known, especially rugby, which he was introduced to during his teenage years and eventually went on to represent and captain India. He is now the president of Rugby India, and RPL is a dream come true. Excerpts from our candid conversation…
Many congratulations, first of all, on the Rugby Premier League. How has it panned out?
Well, I think what has been the greatest achievement of the league is the quality of rugby. It’s been world-class and really intense, and this new format of four minutes a quarter with a two-minute break in between each quarter has resulted in a lot of intense, fast, exciting play where players are not holding back as they know they have a break coming up. That’s one part of it.
The second part of it is that the broadcast pictures look really good. The amount of money on people, expertise and machines that we’ve spent has paid off. There is solid feedback from all over the world on the quality of broadcast, the crispness of the pictures, and the engagement that the broadcast is bringing in, as opposed to being something technically inferior. This is a technically superior product, and we’re very happy with that.
Of course, we have world-class commentators like Rupert Cox and Greg Clark, who are world rugby commentators, and we have Hindi commentary, which has been done by Sunil Taneja, Soumil (Arora) and Sheetal Sharma, who is a national player. So, it’s a lovely mix of the international as well as very much rooted in the Indian context.
The third thing is people watching the game. We were almost full the day before yesterday. We were half-full yesterday. We’re going to be full over the weekend. We’re sold out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So, I think, what is happening is that people —and 90 per cent of the (live) audience doesn’t know rugby — who are coming are responding to how easy it is to understand and how fast-paced and exciting it is.
And finally, we seem to have a small but growing fan base of women. I don’t know whether they’re coming for the rugby or for the athleticism, but it seems to be gaining a lot of popularity amongst women, which is wonderful. You can come for the athleticism and you can stay for the rugby.
This is really a passion project for you. To get it off the ground, Rahul, what were the challenges?
Well, I thought of this about seven years ago and have been actively working on it for the last two-and-a-half years. We partnered with GMR Sports about, I would say, maybe a year-and-a-half ago. And they’ve been wonderful partners. Couldn’t ask for more in terms of support, in terms of understanding….
It all started when, even before we had signed with GMR Sports, World Rugby had agreed to give us a window of 15 days in which the best players in the world would be free to play. And, so, that window took about a year of conversation with them.
They’ve been magnificent in their support through this entire construction of the league. So, once we got that window, they even facilitated for us to meet with 25 of the best players in the world, to talk to them about the league and see if they’d agree to come.
So I met them in Perth, Australia. The players asked four questions. When is it? Okay, we’re free. Where is it? This looks good. How much will you pay us? And we were paying top dollar as advised by World Rugby. And finally, who are the coaches? Any tournament is judged by the quality of the coaches. Out of 15-20 coaches, we had taken six of the best. So when the players heard the names of the coaches, they said, you’re not messing around here. We said, of course, we’re not messing around here. And that’s when it took off.
So, once we had the players and the coaches and the venue, and we got GMR Sports on board, then we approached prospective franchisees and team owners. We have 19 sponsors, which is extraordinary for a first-time sport and a first-time league.
Now, all that was left was the actual eating of the pudding. That happened last Sunday. And, my God, it was exhilarating. The best players in the world are playing with the best in India. It just worked like magic. And here we are. We’re going to get the numbers from the broadcasters in about a month from now. That will take time, but fingers crossed.
You have five marquee players, three bridge players, and then five Indian players. If you could explain what a bridge player is....
No, this is a term that we have created. It doesn’t exist in rugby. A marquee player is a top player in the world. An Indian player is a top player in India. And the bridge is, if there was a kind of gulf between the best of India and the best in the world, then these bridge players from tier-two countries of rugby, they would form a kind of visual continuity on the pitch. But as it’s emerging, today we finished nine days of the tournament… there is a gulf between the Indian players and the best players in the world, but the idea of having bridge players might or might not be used next year, because the Indian players are really stepping up.
Why is there no Calcutta team?
We tried hard, and we were in conversation with at least two people for a long time, but when it came down to actually putting the money in for investment, we didn’t get the response as quickly as we expected.
We have most of our national camps in Calcutta now and I would have loved to have a Calcutta team… being half-Bengali, it would have been great. But it was not to be. And, you know, when we increase our teams from six to eight or nine, I would love to have somebody from Calcutta invest in a team. I think we already have a lot of interest from a couple of other cities. There’s one big city in the North that is very keen on taking a team. And there is another city that is in the West. So, we’re looking.
Do you think this is the absolutely right time to get this league to the country?
Well, I don’t think there’s any right or wrong time, ever. I think there is an opportunity. Everybody says the film industry is going through a slump. But suddenly, you know, we have a film that’s doing really well. And, you know, it’s wonderful.
So, was that the right time? Was it the wrong time? I think you just have to put out a product that is really world-class. You have to put it out with honesty, ethics, transparency and love. And I really doubt that formula ever fails.
So, there is no good or bad time. There are good habits, good practices and bad habits and bad practices.
How often do you get to the field now?
I haven’t played for a year because I have been working about 12-15 hours a day on this. And whatever time I get, wherever I am, I put on my shoes and go for a run, or I just go for a swim if I am in a hotel. But, otherwise, normally I would play once or twice a month. I would play socially at the Bombay Gymkhana club. As soon as this gets over, I am going to get back on that field.
Has rugby really changed you as a person?
Oh, it has had a huge impact on my personality. I think it has taught me how to lose. It taught me to play with other people because, by nature, I am an individualist. It taught me to work with people. It has taught me to face my fears and channel them constructively.
It has taught me to be honest with myself and with others. It has been seminal, the contribution that rugby has made to my consciousness. But the Rugby Premier League, I think what that has done to me, is more a vindication of the way I want to lead my life. I didn’t need the vindication. But it tells you that yes, there is a correct way of doing things and there is an incorrect way of doing things and this way that we have done this is correct and it has paid off.
I cannot say it has paid off monetarily. I don’t want to sound arrogant. The fact that standing there on Sunday evening, you knew that everything had fallen into place. Of course, there will always be a few things here and there and we are doing it day to day, but you knew that yes, we had done it correctly. And it had emerged correctly. You also feel very lucky. You just feel that anything could go wrong. There was a geopolitical conflict. We had to postpone. Then we had the rains. There was a surgery for one of our coaches and a couple of players had to drop out because of injury. At the end of it all, you just have to bow your head down to good fortune.
We are going through unprecedented times. Are you taking it one day at a time?
I reoriented my life about 20 years ago. I learned from the past. I never ever brush it off. I never sweep it under the carpet. I lift the carpet, look at it, look at my faults. Look at what I did right, what I did wrong. And, I address it. I live completely in the present, in the now and I always prepare for the future. I don’t prepare for a rosy future. I always, emotionally and mentally prepare for a hard future so that once I prepare for the worst-case scenario, emotionally, financially, materially, then if I’m prepared for that eventuality, everything else is a bonus.
We are seeing a slew of retirements now. Who will you miss watching, and who are your stars of the future?
I miss already (Roger) Federer. Both Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli), I’ll miss them sorely, like I miss Sachin (Tendulkar) and Rahul (Dravid). I am looking forward to seeing more of (Carlos) Alcaraz. My God, I miss Ayrton Senna, the driver. Everybody’s attracted to these geniuses who seem to have an almost unfair amount of talent in them.
I think the future of Indian chess is very exciting. There are some new exciting names in golf that are coming up. I think, in general, what one can easily witness in life is that just when you think that there will never be anybody like this, somebody else comes up. And I think that is the most uplifting thing about human endeavour, that people are always trying to scale a height that has not been scaled before.
If there was a higher mountain than Mount Everest, I’m sure it would have been scaled by now. So, in that respect, I think that’s the most beautiful thing about human beings. They’re always striving to go, as they say in the Olympics, higher, stronger, faster. The only thing to remember is to take winning and losing with the same equanimity.
Which is the most difficult to achieve…
Once you played sport for your country, it’s less difficult. It’s difficult, but it’s less difficult because you just have to suck it up and move on and do better for your nation the next day.