Actor Manav Kaul can barely contain his excitement as Real Kashmir Football Club gets nominated at the International Emmy Awards. Speaking to us from Paris, the actor, who plays a leading role in the series, says he got the news just minutes before our conversation. “I just got the news, just a few minutes back and I’m just messaging and congratulating the entire team because they’ve worked really hard,” he tells us, adding that the nomination news has still not sunk in for him.
Kaul found out about the nomination through someone who congratulated him. “I just got a message and someone congratulating me, and I said, why are you congratulating me? He said, oh, because your series like is part of like the International Emmy Awards. My God, such a feeling,” he recalls. He immediately messaged director Mahesh Mathai, who initially thought Kaul was joking because he had not seen the announcement himself. “I messaged Mahesh then and there. He called me and said, ‘No, you’re joking. It must be something, you know.’” Kaul then assured him, “Listen, this is on official Emmy page. It’s true. I then told him that I’m in Paris. Let’s cheers and enjoy this news.”
With only two Indian projects selected for the International Emmy Awards this year: Vir Das’s stand-up special Fool Volume and Real Kashmir Football Club; Kaul calls the recognition a “huge win-win for India”. “It’s a big achievement seeing only two Indian projects have been recommended this year. It’s a huge win-win for India, I would say for that matter,” he says. Pointing to the scale of international competition, he adds, “A series has been nominated. You know, how many amazing series are there in the world right now? Like people are doing such amazing stuff in the entire world. And your series is one of them being selected. It’s huge.”
For Kaul, the nomination also feels personal because he always felt the project deserved more recognition. “I feel it’s a personal win, seeing that I always felt that this project did not get its due credit and it deserved much more viewership than what it got. And now I hope it reaches the masses,” he says. Calling it “a real Kashmir story”, he adds, “It’s so good and it’s so amazing and I’m so happy for Mahesh, he worked really hard. The whole team worked very hard on this and it just feels so nice that finally, we are being appreciated for what we have done.”
{{/usCountry}}For Kaul, the nomination also feels personal because he always felt the project deserved more recognition. “I feel it’s a personal win, seeing that I always felt that this project did not get its due credit and it deserved much more viewership than what it got. And now I hope it reaches the masses,” he says. Calling it “a real Kashmir story”, he adds, “It’s so good and it’s so amazing and I’m so happy for Mahesh, he worked really hard. The whole team worked very hard on this and it just feels so nice that finally, we are being appreciated for what we have done.”
{{/usCountry}}For the actor, the strength of the story was evident from the time he first read the script. “It’s a very powerful story. When I got the script, I thought that why anyone haven’t made this because what a stunning story,” he recalls. He also remembers the BBC documentary on the story. “I remember that BBC has done this as a documentary over this whole story. So I thought that if someone has to make this story, I would be so happy to be a part of it. And then when we did it, I was absolutely thrilled by this,” he says.
Kaul says he had also been actively trying to get more people to discover the series. “You have no idea how much I promoted this series. I was, I was, I went all out to just make sure that a lot of people will see it,” he says. For him, the Emmy nomination now feels like long-awaited recognition. “And eventually, you know, it’s getting its due. Long, long due coming in this way.”
Now, he hopes the nomination brings the series a wider audience. “I’m just thinking that because of all this, more people should watch this series,” he says. “This series deserves much, much more viewing because it’s one of my absolute favourite work and it’s so good that we got this. I hope we will get a lot of views.”
Real Kashmir Football Club is an eight-episode Hindi sports drama inspired by the true story of Real Kashmir FC. The series stars Manav Kaul and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in the lead roles and is directed by Mahesh Mathai and Rajesh Mapuskar