Champions trailer flooded with Indian comments post Sitaare Zameen Par row; where to watch Woody Harrelson sports drama

Woody Harrelson's Champions (2023) is facing renewed interest in India after fans compared Aamir Khan's Sitaare Zameen Par trailer to the sports drama.

Updated on: May 15, 2025, 10:28:09 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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The English film Champions was released two years ago, in March 2023. However, if you visit the link of its trailer on YouTube, one may be mistaken to believe it dropped only yesterday, Over the last two days, the trailer has been flooded with comments from Indian fans, who have found a renewed interest in the film after comparisons with Aamir Khan's upcoming film, Sitaare Zameen Par. (Also read: Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par 'frame by frame copy' of Hollywood film that copied Spanish film? Internet is confused)

Woody Harrelson plays a basketball coach in the 2023 Hollywood film, Champions.

Indian fans discover Champions

Sitaare Zameen Par's trailer was released on Tuesday evening. Hours after the trailer was launched, viewers noted many of the scenes were too similar to Champions. Both films follow similar stories of a basketball coach relegated to training a team of intellectually disabled persons. In Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan is the coach who goes from coaching the Delhi state team to a special needs team. In Champions, it was Woody Harrelson, a minor league coach, sentenced to community service.

The trailer started getting comments from Indian fans after the Sitaare Zameen Par trailer came out, and many on social media pointed out the similarities. One comment, posted on Wednesday, read: "Who else is here to check whether amir khan new movie "Sitare Zameen Par" is remake of this one or not." Another quipped, “Sitare Jameen par wale attendance lagana zara (The Sitaare Zameen Par viewers mark your attendance here).”

Funnily enough, Champions is not an original story. It is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones, which stars Javier Gutiérrez as the coach. "I saw the original Spanish film 'Campeones' at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2019. It was WAY better (funny and heartwarming) than it had any right to be. Even though this pretty much looks like a shot-for-shot remake, I'm definitely down to seeing another version of it again," a fan had commented on the Champions trailer in 2023.

Where can one watch Champions

The official synopsis of Champions reads: "Woody Harrelson stars in the hilarious and heartwarming story of a former minor-league basketball coach who, after a series of missteps, is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realises that despite his doubts, together, this team can go further than they ever imagined." Directed by Bobby Farrelly, the film also stars Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, and Cheech Marin. Champions received mixed reviews and was a box office dud, making only $19.2 million worldwide. Releasing alongside John Wick 4 also hurt the film's chances. In India, it is available on OTT. It can be streamed on JioHotstar

About Sitaare Zameen Par

Sitaare Zameen Par, directed by RS Prasanna, is the spiritual sequel to the 2007 hit film Taare Zameen Par. Produced by Aamir Khan Productions, the film introduces 10 debut actors. The screenplay for the film is penned by Divy Nidhi Sharma. The film also stars Genelia D'Souza. It is slated to be released on 20 June.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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