Real Kashmir Football Club: Vishakha Singh on financial blows before International Emmy nod

Thank you for your feedback.

Your feedback has been reported succesfully.

The Sony LIV series Real Kashmir Football Club has earned a nomination in the Drama Series category at the 54th International Emmy Awards. The show is inspired by the true story of Jammu and Kashmir's first professional football club, which was established in the aftermath of the devastating 2014 Kashmir floods. Actor Vishakha Singh, who serves as an executive producer on the show, recently spoke to SCREEN about the International Emmy nomination and the challenges the team faced in securing funding for the project.

During the conversation, Vishakha, known for playing Neetu in the 2013 comedy film Fukrey, admitted that getting an International Emmy nomination is a "huge career milestone" for her. "I have been in the industry for over 20 years, wearing different hats. It was different because of what this series took out of me. Seven years to be exact, and there has been a great deal of persistence through a long run of setbacks. This nomination is such a validation. Our defiance and persistence has been rewarded," she shared.

When asked about getting the cast (actors Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Sohail Mir and Manav Kaul as Shirish Kemmu) of Real Kashmir Football Club on board, she replied, "If you are convinced, then its easier to convince others, because people buy conviction. Of course, Manav and Zeeshan both were initially a bit cautious in terms of whether we would handle a subject around Kashmir sensibly or not. It is the right kind of question to have. Once they saw our intent and read what we were writing and building, they were completely on board with us."

Even after the actors gave a nod for the web series, the co-producers faced several challenges, and were cautious about a lot of things, considering it is inspired by the real-life story of Kashmir's first professional football club. "Our research had to be exact, because this is a true story about living people. We had to be careful about how Kashmir and the people there are portrayed. Our financing was hard because we were raising independently," Vishakha shared.

The most difficult phase was in 2023 when certain producers suddenly backed out before the shooting of Real Kashmir Football Club started. The actor-producer said, "We didn't have a big streamer supporting us. I remember in 2023, after years of conversation, a couple of our backers actually pulled out two weeks before we were to go on the floor. We had to take a very difficult call when this happened, because we did not have the money to finish the series at that point in time."

She continued, "We didn't want to start something and then not have the money to finish filming a project and lose somebody's money. So, our investor's capital had to be safe. That was a huge challenge. The worst blow came at the end of that year, when Sandeep Chattoo (Sandeep inspired Manav Kaul's character), who co-founded the club, passed away due to a sudden heart attack. We actually paused in that moment and genuinely wondered whether this (show) would happen."

Directed by Mahesh Mathai and Rajesh Mapuskar, Real Kashmir Football Club is currently streaming on SonyLIV.