I played a role of a flamboyant cricketer: Gautam Gulati

Gautam, who grabbed eyeballs during his stint in reality show Bigg Boss, will essay the role of cricketer turned commentator 'Ravish' in Azhar.

It was through Ekta Kapoor that the 28-year-old actor learnt about Azhar, which is based on the life of former Indian cricket skipper Mohammad Azharuddin.

"I play the role of 'Ravish', who is a flamboyant cricketer and commentator. For me, the most difficult part about my character was to get the right tone for cricket commentary," Gautam told PTI.

"I just watched a lot of videos of commentators to get things right. I watched a lot of videos of Tony Greg, Kapil Dev, Navjot Singh Sidhu to understand how they do a running commentary," he added.

According to Gautam, cricket commentary is not an easy job as it requires a lot of presence of mind. Besides getting the commentary part correct, Gautam had to work on his physical appearance as well.

"I had to look lean, so I did a proper work out for that," he added. However, Gautam did not get the opportunity to play cricket in the film.

"There is no (playing) cricket part for me in the film. I am not playing cricket in the film. I did miss playing cricket. The story is more about Azhar (Azharuddin) and his journey," he added.

Directed by Tony D'souza, Azhar starring Emraan Hashmi, Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri and Lara Dutta, is slated to release on May 13.

The movie is a Balaji Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Networks' production.