Exclusive: I would like to commentate on an India game at the FIFA World Cup- Pulasta Dhar

The 29-year-old gave an insight into his journey of becoming a journalist and a football commentator later on.

It is quite phenomenal, how much impact commentators have in a football match. Memories of all the brilliant goals, skill moves and spectacular saves by goalkeepers would be colourless without their special words at that particular moment.

Probably the most classic example of the influence of commentating can be cited by that strike by Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero against Queens Park Rangers in the injury time, which helped his side clinch the Premier League title in the most ecstatic way. The fun in recalling the memory of that goal wouldn’t be the same without those magical words ‘Balotelli… Aguerroooo!’, scripted by Martin Tyler.

While Tyler remains one of the best commentators in the history of English football, we have our own set of commentators here in India who have revolutionized the way of commentating in modern times. Recently, Khel Now had the opportunity to speak with Pulasta Dhar, the man who perfectly orchestrated some of the best moments in Indian football in the past few seasons.

We take a look at how the man was groomed into taking up journalism as a youngster and how he became one of the top commentators in the Indian football industry.

“I was always good at storytelling, writing,” began Pulasta, “I think English was always one of my strong points.”

“It was a long time ago when I used to be a cricket fan. I had just returned to India from Zambia and sports had caught my attention. I had never thought about journalism as a career but I always wanted to do something that was related to storytelling, speaking or writing.”

He went to add that the once he started watching football, other sports took a backseat. That is because football always has some action, drama, etc, he explained. “I started watching football when I was a 10 year-old; there was a craze for the Premier League then.”

Brought up for most of his life in Baroda, Gujarat, Pulasta says, “That was the time when my love affair with football started.”

Asked about his favourite team in England, he answered, “I am a realistic fan of Manchester United. Realistic in the sense that I want Liverpool to win the title this season and not Manchester City.”

“For me supporting a club is facilitated by the club’s history, their culture, their way. Like the United way or the Liverpool way. In a way, I have a lot of respect for Liverpool. They have had their struggle for so long. I especially like (Jurgen) Klopp. That is the sort of football I like.”

“I like rock n roll football, fast and quick and with lots of combinations. I think if you are to watch football nowadays, you should watch Liverpool and not United. United lost its way in the last few years. I am not one of those fans who want their team to win every year. I like to have challenges and like to watch my team lose sometimes," quipped Dhar.

“Absolute power is something that doesn’t fascinate me,” he asserted.

As for Indian football, Pulasta is still waiting for a team to support. "Given that I was brought up in Baroda, I wasn't exposed to Indian football at an age where kids develop a connection with a particular club. Some days I wish I had an Indian team to support but until then, I will back Indian Arrows because they are the country's future," he said.

Coming back towards his days in Zambia, Pulasta spoke about how times were in the African country. He also spoke about his college days and that he was determined to add some experience to his resume.

That was the time he got the opportunity to work for a Zambian newspaper, The Post, for whom he also covered an AFCON qualifier game between Zambia and Cameroon. Pulasta explains the experience as a special one.

However, he also explained how there is limited coverage for football in the African country and that the sporting culture there is yet to develop. In India, on the other hand, the coverage in the last four-five years has been absolutely 'brilliant'.

“But I’m not saying brilliant in terms of quality, because it differs from place to place. I’m saying brilliant in terms of having action to cover, having the country to cover, having the leads to cover, it’s exploded. Moreover, I think it is much easier to get access to cover football in India than cricket and it is really fun reading too,” he added.

Furthermore, the 29-year-old spoke about the time he ventured into commentating. He says that he ‘forced’ the opportunity to get into that field.

“I used to win all the elocutions and debates in school, there was this international debate I won too,” began Pulasta, “By that time, I had realized that given the minimal opportunities in Gujarat, it would be very difficult to make a career in football. We didn’t know whether it was a viable career option or not.”

“However, the next best thing other than being a player or a coach or part of the staff is to be the link between the fans and the sport. I was a very confident speaker. So I decided, that I am going to speak about the sport. I am going to build a bridge between the viewer and the sport," stated Dhar.

Followed by that, Pulasta did his MA in Broadcast Journalism in the UK, at the University of Sheffield and also worked for BBC.

“I attended a game at the King Power Stadium with a commentator of BBC. I was sitting right behind him and while he was commentating, so was I, in my mind.”

Coming back to India, Pulasta became a journalist, which was always in his plans. He explained his time with a media firm where he used to work around making videos and stuff. That was the time when the Indian Super League (ISL) too was coming up.

However difficult it was to get  into the leagues,  according to him, he would go through the struggle all over again if he had to. “I would sit and mail my clips to various email addresses as suggested by my seniors. I did this for almost two years before finally getting noticed.”

His first break came in a game between Salgaocar and Aizawl, which only gained him confidence and it added up to his resume too.

As he returned to mailing his clips again, senior commentator Novy Kapadia had to leave for London to attend an urgent matter, and it was then that Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan offered him a chance to do another I-League game. "I was already looking forward to such an opportunity and so I instantly said yes," Dhar recalled.

“I did that game with Debayan [Sen] and after the game Sreenivasan approached me with a list, saying these are the remaining games of the league, would you do them? I was so happy that I went home and cried. I had finally got the break.”

Asked about his fond memory in Indian football, Pulasta said there are a lot of them. “My first game was a fond memory, so was Aizawl’s title-winning game, the Federation Cup, the Kolkata Derbies, Chennai City games this season.”

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He went on to describe the moment when Pedro Manzi scored a goal during his side’s last game in the I-League. Pulasta’s comments on that goal had gone viral on social media. ‘The footballing Gods will forgive you if you left your partner for that goal’ were his words.

He explains the moment as something he was waiting for since long. “You can’t say things like that on ordinary goals. For me, in my career so far, that was the goal of the season.”

Moreover, Pulasta also picked Manzi over FC Goa’s Ferran Corominas as the player of the season saying, "Every time he touched the ball it would turn out to be a goal. He was scoring for fun."

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While picking his favourite commentator in English football, he said it was a close call between Peter Drury and Martin Tyler. He also went on to describe his admiration towards Jim Ross, a commentator of WWE fame. Adding to that he also praised the likes of domestic commentators in John Helm, Anant Tyagi, and Atish Thukral.

While concluding, Pulasta spoke about how he would love to commentate for games like Liverpool vs Manchester United, derbies in South America, but the biggest dream remains to commentate on an India game at the World Cup.