Chak De! makers are best entertainers of 2007

TWO-MAN SHOW: Shimit Amin (L) and Jaideep Sahni believe in passion for story-telling rather than success formulas.

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New Delhi: The verdict for the best entertainer for last year is finally out too.

2007 was a pretty good year for Bollywood — new filmmakers, unconventional ideas and good old masala films. But who entertained us the most?

Well, here are the winners of the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2007 in the Entertainment category: the writer-director duo of last year's mega blockbuster Chak De! India — Jaideep Sahni and Shimit Amin.

Shahrukh Khan sporting a scruffy beard, no romantic interest, and a bunch of 16 non-glamorous girls wielding hockey sticks — it's what Bollywood's rule book might call suicidal.

But Shah Rukh and his band of clamorous women broke all the rules of the game, and Chak De! India turned out to be one of the biggest commercial successes of 2007. The movie put the spotlight back on the country's much neglected national game Hockey. It also gave India its new anthem, the Chak De title song.

A lot has been said and heard about Shah Rukh and the girls who formed the hockey team. However, the real heroes of the film were the two minds behind the camera — the writer-director duo of Jaideep Sahni and Shimit Amin who let their work do all the talking.

Jaideep started his career as an IT consultant and soon moved to advertising. He made his Bollywood debut with Jungle and went to script many hits like Company, Bunty aur Babli and Khosla ka Ghosla.

Shimit was based in the US, working as a script doctor before he moved to Mumbai. He started out as a promo editor for the movie Ashoka, went on to edit Bhoot, and later to direct Ab Tak Chhappan.

A small newspaper article on the Indian women's hockey team's victory at the Commonwealth Games was the inspiration for the film. Shimit, impressed by the script and the research put into the film, came on board later as its director.

Trade pundits were sceptical about the film's success even with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. An unconventional subject, with no song and dance routines, revolving around a game doesn't usually attract eyeballs.

However, Jaideep and Shimit believe, films are not written and made keeping formulas in mind. It’s the passion that counts, the passion to tell a story that you think the world should know. Without thinking much about its success or failure, they scripted a story of human courage, of team effort and of putting the country's interest before your own.

So, here's a big chak de to the team behind the film. The writer-director duo of Jaideep Sahni and Shimit Amin are the joint winners of the CNN-IBN Indian Of the Year in the Entertainment category.