A FILM starring an Indian megastar, shot largely in Bradford with many local extras, is being showcased in new trailers.

Gold – the story of India’s first Olympic hockey team – was filmed at Bradford’s Midland Hotel, Lister Park, Dalton Mills, Keighley, and Odsal Stadium, where a Royal box was specially built for the shoot.

The film highlights India’s emergence from the British Empire when its men’s hockey team met the British hockey team on the field and, on August 12, 1948, won the first Olympic gold medal for India as an independent nation.

Billed as “an inspirational story of a team that fought all odds to bring their nation hope, pride and respect”, Gold stars one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Akshay Kumar, and will be released on August 15 – the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence Day. Kumar plays Balbir Singh, regarded as one of the best hockey players of all time, who coached India’s hockey team to victory at Wembley a year after Partition. The film goes back to 1936 Berlin Olympics when Singh was a hockey player. Locations including Lister Mill and Little Germany were used for Nazi Germany scenes.

The cast and crew of Gold were in Bradford for several months last year, based in Little Germany where production offices and a prop store were set up. Bradford’s City of Film team helped with location filming.

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“It was a huge production for Bradford to host,” said City of Film director David Wilson. “We helped facilitate access to a number of locations and provided options for parking the unit base, trucks and catering.

“I visited the production offices in Peckover Street on a number of occasions and even though everyone was extremely busy, it had a real family atmosphere. Some cast and crew stayed at The Midland and Jurys Inn – they occupied close to 4,000 bed nights in Bradford hotels over a three-month period. The economic impact of such a production is significant. The producers and directors had a great experience here and will be back in the future.”

Last year the Telegraph & Argus highlighted opportunities for extras in a crowd scene at Odsal Stadium, which appears in the Bollywood blockbuster as Wembley. “We found a lot of what we needed in Bradford. It has been a perfect venue for us,” said executive producer Shivani Saran.

Trailers for the movie are on youtu.be/gpWrT-LdMfs