Meet Vijay Basre, the real-life inspiration to Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Jhund

Amitabh Bachchan’s freshly released film Jhund is based on the life of Vijay Barse, the man who gave birth to Slum Soccer in India.

Image: Vijay Basre/Twitter

Amitabh Bachchan starrer Jhundh, is the first big theatrical released that hit the cinema halls on Friday. Bachchan’s character has drawn inspiration from Vijay Barse. It was Vijay’s life’s story that has been narrated on the screen by none other than Bachchan himself.

Directed by Nagraj Manjule, Jhund revolves around the life of a football coach from Nagpur who wants to bring in a change in the lives of those with lesser means through the medium of his sport.

But, who is Vijay Basre? And what has he done that inspired this Amitabh Bachchan film? Vijay Basre is the man who used football as a medium to empower those who came with lesser means. He is the man who is credited for starting Slum Soccer in India.

A few years ago, Vijay was invited as a guest on Aamir Khan’s television show ‘Satyameva Jayate’ where he shared the story of his life.  spoke of how he spotted a few children kicking a broken bucket. Upon seeing them, he offered them a football which the kids happily accepted. Soon after, saw another group of children who too were doing the same but with a tennis ball. At that time, was working with Nagpur’s Hislop College as a sports teacher.

That is when Vijay realised his calling. He decided to gather all these children at a playground and chose to train them in football. It was his way of contributing to society since he knew that if children are busy at a playground, they will very well stay off from the ills of the world.

This will of Vijay is what gave birth to Zopadpatti Football in the year 2002, which later came to be known as Slum Soccer.  Vijay Basre, in his TEDx talk, once revealed that he was often asked as to why he would name the league Zopadpatti Football. He said that the reason why he kept the name or did not want to change it was that all the children came from the zopadpatti/slum areas.

Vijay Basre came to the limelight in the year 2003 after a leading Hindi daily did an interview on him. By then, his league of young footballers had already started competing at city and district level tournaments.

Sooner, after the interview, The Slum Soccer league gained nationwide recognition. So much so that Vijay, who had no sponsors and was using his own money for training the kids, had an article on him that got published in an American newspaper. That is when Vijay’s son, who was living in the US, decided to return and help his father by taking the league forward.

Vijay Basre’s biggest achievement in life is when he got the opportunity to meet Nelson Mandela in Cape Town, South Africa. “My son, you’re doing a great job” – these words of Mandela continue to motivate him to do better every day.