Based on the 2005 biography The Hansie Cronje Story: An Authorised Biography, the movie will not explore the match-fixing case in detail, but will focus on “Hansie’s inner journey” in a three-part narrative — rise, fall and acceptance. And that’s probably why the first shot that was canned near Cape Town on August 27 showed “a Xhosa woman running across to road to give Hansie a hug and tell him that the people still love him, even though he had made a mistake.”

Frans and his director Regardt van den Bergh hope to wrap up shooting on November 3, with the Mumbai leg, and want the movie ready for commercial release, including a possible opening in India, in September, 2008.

“It has been a great privilege to be involved. There were a few scenes that were emotional to film, like for instance the King Commission (that probed the match-fixing scandal) and Peter Pollock (father of South Africa pacer Shaun Pollock) giving Hansie counsel in the years where he rebuilt his life after being banned from cricket,” writes Frans. Last November, Frans’s movie Faith Like Potatoes won the People’s Choice Award at the Sabaoth Film Festival in Milan. He had told this newspaper then: “Our movies are all inspirational stories of people who aspired to make a difference. I wouldn’t say that Hansie influenced my film career, but in growing up together, we mutually influenced each other.”