Before The Biopic

Meet the captain of the Indian women’s national football team, Loitongbam Ashalata Devi, a player whose life is a gripping story just waiting to be shared

- Urvee Modwel 

Fresh off the HT Brunch cover shoot, 29-year-old Loitongbam Ashalata Devi is in high spirits. "It was so very good," she repeats thrice, effusively. "It was my first experience and I really liked it." Ashalata is instantly easy to talk to and has an almost innocent, unpretentious way of speaking and natural charm that draws you to her.

But if you ran into her on the street, chances are you'd walk right past her without recognising her. The professional football player and captain of the women's national football team may have kept a low profile, but she's already achieved more than most men and women her age, after overcoming what is arguably the most influential pressure there is familial to get to where she is today. She may be young, but her life story already has all the ingredients you'd need to make a compelling biopic.

Who would she choose to play her on the big screen? "I think Sanya Malhotra would fit my character best," Ashalata muses.

FROM THE BEGINNING

As with any good biopic, there should be a detailed flashback to one's early childhood days. However, Ashalata says that she started playing football pretty late in life. She was already 13 when she first started playing, back in her hometown of Imphal, Manipur.

"I'd never really seen girls play football before," she says. "When I was studying in class seven, I used to see some boys playing near my house. And looking at them, I really wanted to play, too."

So, she did what anybody in class seven would do: went to her teacher. "I requested my school teacher to let me play," Ashalata says. "He told me, 'Football isn't played with just one player. You need an entire team. If you want to play, make a team and come back."