The hallowed turf of Odsal Stadium is to feature in a Bollywood blockbuster due out next year, but you will be forgiven for not recognising the beloved Bradford stands.

The stadium was being used for Gold, an adaptation based on the story of the Indian Olympic hockey team which won the nation’s first gold medal as an independent nation at the 1948 Games, in London.

The medal was won just a year after Partition from the British Raj and the team had beaten England 4-0 in the final.

Many hundreds of extras were sought from in and around Bradford to make up the crowd cheering on the teams.

But though Odsal will feature in the film as the Games’ venue, in fact it is being portrayed as Wembley where the final actually took place. The home of the Bradford Bulls Rugby League team has often been touted as the ‘Wembley of the North’ and it was found to be the perfect place to replicate the old Wembley Stadium.

Digital jiggery-pokery will let viewers catch a glimpse of the capital’s old stadium twin towers.

“We found a lot of what we needed in Bradford. It has been a perfect venue for us,” said executive producer Shivani Saran, speaking on Saturday.

“This has been our last day of shooting and the weather has caused us problems.,” she added.

“In the first half of the match in 1948 the weather was fine but there was torrential rain in the second half.

“We have had to mix up the shooting because it was supposed to be fine yesterday, but it rained, and today it has been raining when we needed it fine. The constant sunshine to cloud has also caused us continuity problems so it takes longer to do,” she explained.

Gold is directed by Reema Kagti, whose previous Bollywood successes include Honeymoon Travel Pvt Ltd and Taalash. The star of the production is Akshay Kumar who plays the Indian’s team coach.

The film goes back to the Olympics of 1936 in Berlin when he was a player. Locations around Bradford, including around Lister Mill and Little Germany were used to shoot some of the Nazi Germany scenes complete with swastikas and generals.

“The locations were ideal and the buildings of Little Germany lent themselves perfectly to the scenes we were setting.

Gold is due to be released next August to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Games.