Great stories are born on playing fields — think Escape to Victory, think Million Dollar Baby. But if Hollywood has bloodied its nose in the boxing ring or the soccer field for narratives of the gritty human spirit, Indian cinema has played it safe with cricket — well, not any more. A glut of movies on sports as diverse as hockey and racing shows Bollywood is game for some action — in exotic locales and away from the cricket pitch.

So debutant director Vicky Singh, once assistant to Farhan Akhtar, takes a tale of three Indians (Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Sikander Kher, Anupam Kher’s son) trying to live the American dream to the rugged racing tracks of Mexico for his film Raaste.

Directors are daring to go off the beaten track because a cricket-obsessed nation is fast learning the rules of Formula One and adventure sports — from the comfort of the living room, of course. The result: a refreshing emphasis on research and authenticity.

In Raaste, to be produced by Suniel Shetty and Ekta Kapoor, the director wants every frame to look real. "People now follow racing and any goof-up can be immediately spotted," he says. The story revolves around Baja 1000, an off-road race that takes place in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula every year. From motorcycles and cars to buggies and trucks, the race is open to all vehicles. All the actors will have a month-long training before shooting starts. Steve Kelso, another sports choreographer, who recently helped Saif Ali Khan train for Tara Rum Pum , will conduct the sessions.

If content is getting ambitious, technology has to catch up. Recorded footage of cricket or football matches won’t do for this new breed. Singh has hired one of Hollywood’s ace aerial photographers, Ivor Shier (of Babe and Collateral fame), to shoot the race sequences. Around 16-17 cameras will be used to capture a single sequence.

And what of the stories? The best sports tales have always been about the triumph of the underdog — from Rocky Balboa to India’s win at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. So, in Raaste, three outsiders fight Mexico’s scorching heat and their personal demons as they compete in a race. Tracking their three stories is a sports psychologist, played by Aishwarya Rai.

Says the director, "I wanted to focus on individual sports, where each contestant has his own territory to defend. In Raaste, I explore three separate tracks with the three actors. The unifying factor is that they are all Indians, trying to live out their dream on the dirt tracks of Mexico and they are all underdogs."