A lot of people state that the IPL is a marriage between cricket & entertainment. It probably is true, given the fact that, these are the 2 most fanatically followed interests in India. Since Indians are infested at various parts of the world, this automatically is spread in different regions, thus making it a global phenomenon. But what this so called marriage between cricket & entertainment has done is, it has given an opportunity for the film marketing gurus to bombard the consumers with some senseless twining between movies & cricket. Yes, this was an untapped opportunity a few decades back. Yes, cricket is the most followed sport in India. Yes, Indians do love it when cricket & movies are brought together on the same platform. But I spot something spookily jinxed, when cricket is used as a platform to market films.
Being a true cricket fan, every one of us find something or some mannerism to beat the jinx. Like, when one of our friends gets up to grab a bottle of water & an Indian batsman scores a six, the thirst-filled friend is forced to stand next to the fridge, who will not be allowed to see the remainder of the deliveries, until the innings gets over, hoping that the batsman keeps scoring sixes. This in other words is called cricket superstitions, where a cricket fan believes that, only because his friend, who went out to get a bottle of water, is the batsman even scoring sixes. You can’t blame a cricket fan who thinks this way. That’s the nature of him & you’ve got to deal with it. You would wonder, what might be the connection between movies & cricket superstitions. A cricket fan like me can never run short of bizarre findings, explanations & conclusions. Over the last 3 years, I have noticed a trend wherein, if any Hindi movie tie’s up with a sports channel along with a series featuring India, our cricket team has always performed pathetically.
As mind-numbing as it may sound, I believe that I’ve got my research done. In all the following cases, bar the fact the reach is huge and the movie has the possibility of reaching a wider spectrum apart from its target group. I might have to date you back a couple of years from where I believe it all started. The 2009 series between Australia & India featured in a leading sports channel tied up with a movie called London dreams. One very clear example of how the series can’t be forgotten, but the sponsors can be. India saw disaster in that test series, not that the movie could escape a similar fate. But I’ve often wondered what connects London dreams to an India vs Australia series. That series was action packed, but unfortunately India was on the receiving end. London dreams, clearly gave them no dreams, instead replaced by nightmares. 
In 2009, came the Champions Trophy at South Africa. India has always had a positive run in the Champion’s trophy. They were the finalists in 2000 & joint winners in 2002. In came a movie called “All the best”, yet another multi-starrer. The movie was aimed at boosting the moral of the Indians and in turn they trusted the movie to do well. It also featured one of the most expensive songs in the history of Indian cinema. This movie was promoted extensively during the entire champion’s trophy. Where was India in that edition? India were knocked out in the league stages itself. I can still remember how the title song blared its way through the series, especially when India was knocked out in the first stage itself. All the best was indeed not the best. 
In the same year, 2009, India came into England to defend their T20 world cup title. India was considered the favorites & they did look like one, until they took onto the field. Even before the tournament started, we could find the lead pair of that movie, Love Aaj kal, jabbering away to glory, on how they loved cricket. Guess what? The movie did exceedingly well and India’s performance was diametrically opposite. The defending champions were dispelled in the super eight leg of the world cup. They played 3 games & lost all of them. India had won 2 games in the group stage. Those wins came off against Ireland & Bangladesh. Indians were in no mood for love aaj aur kal. 
After the first edition of Champions League T20 being cancelled due to the Mumbai terror attacks, the second edition created much excitement. There were 3 teams that participated from the IPL, which were Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils & Royal Challengers Bangalore. This time the jinx followed all the teams from the hosting nation. None of the 3 IPL teams even made it to the finals. The culprit movie this time was “BLUE”. Though I was upset that none of the IPL teams made it, I could find solace in what I think is a happy takeaway. The movie was a bigger disaster than the tournament itself. Movies were soon beginning to catch the cricket “Blues” 
There was quite a gap where movies started to tie up with cricket series’ until the Badshah of over kill came into the being. In 2011, the movie “RaOne”, tied up with even with dustbins as a part of their extensive marketing strategy. The champion’s league was not spared either. Though this edition had an IPL team winning the tournament, the defending IPL & CLT20 champions, Chennai Super Kings were ousted. That was a season filled with over kills including the cricket, the Movie – RaOne & Shahrukh Khan himself. The Champions league altogether so alarmingly low turnovers from the spectators, with the stadiums often sporting a ghostly-empty look, much like the theatres for this movie. RaOne turned into NoOne after that. 
The last, but in no means the least, by now you should have guessed which movie has spelled doomsday for the Indian team. The “Agneepath” series, between Australia & India. I don’t need to delve into the details of how badly the Indians have performed in this series. I was telling all my close friends, that even before the series started, I knew that India would do badly and just like a lot of others, they laughed at me. But like one of my friends rightly put it, it would’ve been more apt if it was called, The “Agony-path” series. If they previous series against England wounded us nearly to coma, this series tortured even the ghosts after a traumatized death. So, it is safe to come to the conclusion that, a hindi movie, Agneepath, has duly done its duty. This entire analogy might seem a bit weird, crazy or even laughable. But the cricket fan in you, will sub consciously ponder over this bizarre co incidence. The cricket superstition more often than not stands good. But ultimately you’d believe what you want to. On an even lighter side, Spare a thought for the cricketers, the support staff, the selectors & the fan; blame the movie which has tied up with this series (the only thing which is so far saved from the blame game). Thus my hypothesis of Indians faring pathetically, when a hindi movie is tied up with that particular series, is proved right, hence jinxed. So, as a pure cricket fan who believes in cricket superstitions, the next time you see a movie which ties up with an upcoming cricket series featuring India, you know what to do, you know how to think and you know whom to blame !
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