A film shoot at Mumbai's historic Azad Maidan has set off a sharp dispute between the city's cricket establishment and the Maharashtra government's Sports Department, after the shooting of Ranveer Singh's upcoming film Pralay forced the postponement of Under-14 and Under-16 inter-school cricket matches.
The Mumbai Cricket Association has written to the authorities objecting to the decision, saying a ground that has trained generations of young cricketers is being treated as a commercial venue.
The controversy began when the state government's Sports Department granted permission to Light Rays, the Mumbai-based production company behind Pralay, to shoot at Azad Maidan for six hours. The permission covered 5,000 square yards of government land at the ground, and the makers were charged 40,000 rupees in rent, calculated at the rate of 800 rupees per 100 square yards, along with a refundable security deposit of the same amount.
The permission was signed by Sports Department Under Secretary Ashok Damayyawar on 30 October and forwarded by the Deputy Director of Sports and Youth Services, Mumbai, on 2 November.
According to the Mumbai Cricket Association, this is the first time a film shoot has been permitted at Azad Maidan. The association said the shoot disrupted the schedule of Under-14 and Under-16 inter-school cricket matches that had been planned well in advance, forcing it to postpone games that form an important part of its cricket development programme.
The association has written to the Deputy Director of Sports, questioning the decision and pointing out that the ground is one of Mumbai's most important venues for grassroots and competitive cricket.
Nadim Memon, a member of the Mumbai Cricket Association's Apex Council, told the Mumbai Mirror that the Sports Department was increasingly allowing commercial activities at the ground while neglecting its sporting needs. "This is the first time a film shoot has taken place at Azad Maidan," he said, asking how the department could allow a commercial shoot when matches had already been scheduled.
The association said the installation of large film sets and the laying of artificial grass for the shoot had made it impossible to play the age-group fixtures as planned.
The association's wider complaint is that Azad Maidan is already under pressure from non-sporting uses. Memon pointed to ongoing metro construction work and the occupation of parts of the ground by the police, arguing that adding commercial film shoots to that list undermines the venue's purpose as a hub for developing young cricketers.
Azad Maidan has long been one of Mumbai's great nurseries of the game, a vast open ground near the city's southern tip where school and club cricket has been played for generations, and where countless young players have taken their first steps towards professional cricket. For the association, its value lies precisely in being available, day after day, to the children who practise there.
The filmmakers and the Sports Department have defended the shoot. Hansal Mehta, the director of Pralay, responded to the criticism by saying the production had secured all the necessary government permissions before filming at the location.
The Maharashtra government's Sports Department clarified that the production had been granted the use of 5,000 square yards for a limited six-hour window, and that the booking was made under a government resolution that permits the use of Azad Maidan for non-sporting events for up to 30 days a year.
Navnath Fartade, the Deputy Director of Sports for the Mumbai Division, defended the decision and said the approval carried specific conditions, including a ban on vehicles on the pitches and a ban on any digging or cooking on the premises.
The episode has therefore become an argument about priorities. On one side is the view that a public ground owned by the government can be let out for a limited period, for a fee, under rules that already allow non-sporting use, and that a six-hour shoot with conditions attached does little lasting harm.
On the other side is the view that a cricket ground's first duty is to cricket, that school matches scheduled months in advance should not give way to a film unit, and that each commercial booking sets a precedent that makes the next one easier. The Mumbai Cricket Association's letter makes the second case in blunt terms: the ground, it says, cannot be used for commercial shoots at the cost of the young players who depend on it.
Pralay itself is a survival thriller set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Mumbai, depicting a city facing a threat linked to the undead. The film stars Ranveer Singh and features Kalyani Priyadarshan in her Hindi film debut. Filming began in August 2026. The Azad Maidan schedule was one location among many, but it has become the film's most talked-about stop, for reasons that have nothing to do with the story on screen.
The row also touches a familiar tension in Indian cities, where open grounds are among the scarcest public resources. A maidan in Mumbai is at once a playground, a practice ground, a protest site, a film location and a piece of real estate that many interests want to use. The rules that govern it must balance those claims, and every decision about who gets the ground on a given day is, in effect, a decision about what the city values most.
In this case, the Sports Department decided that a six-hour film shoot, properly paid for and conducted under conditions, was a legitimate use. The cricket association disagrees, and it has said so in writing.
Whether the objection changes anything remains to be seen. The shoot has taken place, the matches have been postponed, and the letter has been sent. What the episode has done is to put a question on the public record that will return the next time a film unit, or any other commercial venture, asks to use Azad Maidan: whether a ground that belongs to the city's cricketers should be hired out at all, and if so, who decides, and at whose expense.
(Reporting based on Mumbai Mirror, Bollywood Hungama, The Free Press Journal and Zoom TV.)