Call it an eerie coincidence, but after Rock On gave its actors Farhan Akhtar and Arjun Rampal a serious alternative career-option in music and stage performance, director Abhishek Kapoor’s new film Kai Po Che has turned one of its leading men Sushant Singh Rajput into a quasi-professional cricketer. Rajput plays an aspiring cricketer in Kai Po Che. Hours of grueling training with experts in the field (pun intended) and with winners of the Ranji trophy in the game have turned Sushant Rajput into a diehard cricket buff. Says the director, “Since Sushant plays a cricketer in the film he went underwent months of training from some of the best cricketer coaches in our country because I had to make him look like an exceptional player on screen.” It’s interesting to see actors carry a vocation that they learn for a film beyond the role. Arjun Rampal learnt to play the guitar for Abhishek Kapoor’s Rock On. Now he’s hooked for life and would like to perform on stage as part of a musical band. Says Abhishek Kapoor, “Whether it was rock music on Rock On or cricket on Kai Po Che I’ve made sure that the vocation and the skill that the characters possess don’t overshadow the characters. Basically both Rock On and Kai Po Che are about the characters. What they do, the backdrop that they function within, are not allowed to overpower their personality. I’ve made sure of that. In that sense Rock On was not a film about rock music. And Kai Po Che is not about cricket.”