Million Dollar Arm is opening in theaters on May 16th. This great, inspirational movie is based on a real life story, and last week I had the opportunity to interview the men behind this American dream come true.
I received an all expenses paid trip to participate in this interview, but opinions are my own
At the Hollywood Loews Hotel, we sat down with the real JB Bernstein, Rinku Singh & Dinesh Patel. It was truly an honor to meet the people who’s lives inspired such a moving film.
The first thing I noticed about the three of them is the closeness between them. JB was very warm and friendly, and you could tell that he really cared about the boys.
During our interview we asked him how accurate the film was depicting how he came up with the idea for the Million Dollar Arm contest. He shared
[The film] touches on the inspirations like American Idol and seeing Cricket, but in reality, my two Business Partners, Will Chang and Aasif Suferat, and I came together with this nebulous fuzzy thing of Hey, we should try to find talent in India too.
The contest didn’t just affect JB Bernstein’s professional life. It also gave him a profound insight into life in general. At the beginning of the film he’s a quintessential bachelor, and by the end their is a special bond between himself, Rinku, and Dinesh. Now that he’s a dad, we asked him what things he learned by being a pseudo parent to two young Indian kids that were brought to a culture they knew nothing about. He boasted,
Having Rinku and Dinesh live with me, gave me a taste of fatherhood. It reminded me of the importance of family. It reminded me of the importance of being surrounded by people that you love and that love you. Being able to take pride in other people’s accomplishments, a lot of the rudimentary lessons of life, came back into focus. I think in a lot of ways, I started being a parent, although kind of baptism by fire, with these guys.
Before the Million Dollar Arm experience, Rinku and Dinesh had never left their small villages in India. They weren’t just coming to a whole new country, but in essence a whole new world. We wanted to dig in a little deeper and ask them first hand what it was like coming to America and learning to play baseball so quickly.
Dinesh shared with us
My parents, were really afraid by I’m leaving. They say, don’t go because this is the new world for me. And we weren’t out so they are very afraid.
Rinku shared further insight with us. He made us more aware that they weren’t just leaving their families. He recalled,
We didn’t just leave the family. Beside the family, we left our culture, family, friends, food, and we were just 18 year old kids. Making that huge decision wasn’t easy for us. What are we gonna do without knowing anything about American Culture. We don’t know language. We don’t know anybody besides JB.
Even though the experience was terrifying at first, both Rinku and Dinesh shared with us that they would both do it again in a heart beat. It changed not only their lives, but their family’s lives as well. They were both excited to attend the premiere, and had already screened the movie. It was exciting to see their life stories on the big screen, and they both hope they their stories can be inspirational to both the American and Indian cultures alike.
Tammy Soong says
I can’t wait to see this movie. I’m a total sap, but I pretty much start to tear up every time the dumb preview comes on.