Call it a million-dollar case of culture shock.
When Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel arrived in the United States for the first time in 2008, the two small-town Indian teens were shocked by what they saw.
Coming from villages without cellphones, the Internet or flat-screen TVs, they were awed and baffled by the proliferation of technology.
They went to see “Iron Man” in 3-D and refused to put on the glasses, telling their host, “No, sir. My vision is fine.”
They were also floored to see beef — a taboo in their native country — on almost every menu. Later, during a 2011 visit to the White House, the two pulled up outside and asked, “Does Obama live in a hotel?”
Singh and Patel are aspiring baseball players who won a televised pitching contest in India called “Million Dollar Arm.” The reality show was organized by Los Angeles sports agent J.B. Bernstein, who was in search of Major League talent on the subcontinent. He plucked the boys from obscurity and ultimately became a father figure to them.
Their story is the basis for Friday’s “Million Dollar Arm.” Jon Hamm plays Bernstein, Suraj Sharma (“Life of Pi”) portrays Singh, and Madhur Mittal from “Slumdog Millionaire” is Patel.
The story has a tight, three-act structure, complete with an uplifting climax tailor-made for the sports-movie genre — but the surprising thing is, it’s mostly true.
“I finished the script and loved it and then looked back to the title page and went, ‘Wait a minute. This is true?’ ” Hamm says. “I am a huge baseball fan, and somehow this flew under my radar.”
The star spent the next two hours Googling the real story of Bernstein and the boys. What he found was this:
Bernstein was a sports agent. He repped greats, including Barry Bonds. His business, however, was struggling. That’s when, in 2007, he hit upon the idea to head to India in search of a cricket bowler that could be converted into a baseball pitcher (first-act exposition!).
“I subscribe to the philosophy that [former NBA player] Yao Ming is the way to build popularity of a sport in a country,” Bernstein tells The Post. “You find a guy from a country that hasn’t had many US sports success stories, and you bring that guy over, and [the people back home] start to follow him. All of a sudden the broadcasting and jersey sales start to hit.”
Bernstein turned his search into the reality-TV series. When he landed in India, he was taken aback by some business customs, like an apparent aversion to contracts.
“We did our deal for a 10-episode TV series on a handshake,” he says.
Some 38,000 Indian hopefuls showed up for a shot at the American big leagues and a $100,000 prize.
Most of the contestants were terrible. Singh — the son of a truck driver — was crowned the winner, having hurled an 89-mph fastball despite never having picked up a baseball before. Patel, who threw the javelin at school, was the runner-up.
The two traveled to California and worked out with USC pitching coach Tom House. A few months later, Bernstein secured an audition with MLB scouts. His protégés bombed (second-act antagonism!).
The two did well enough at a later tryout to get picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009, becoming the first Indians to sign a professional sports contract in North America and earning them a sizeable fanbase at home (third-act resolution!).
Bernstein also went through a screen-friendly character arc. He learned there’s more to life than just closing the deal and also met and fell in love with his now-wife, Brenda (played in the movie by Lake Bell).
“Having Rinku and Dinesh in my life, and Brenda, changed me fundamentally as a person — from this agent who thought myopically about business,” he says. “These two 18-year-olds get dropped in your lap . . . make you realize the importance of family.”
The coda to the story that’s not included in the narrative portion of the film is what happened to Patel and Singh after signing with the Pirates. Both pitched in the minor leagues. Patel was cut in 2010 and returned to India, where he went back to school. Singh, now 25, pitched for the Pirates minor-league affiliate. He’s currently recovering from surgery and hopes to return to the mound soon.
As for the TV series “Million Dollar Arm,” Bernstein expects 500,000 prospects to turn up for the third season this fall. The irony will be that, while the show’s first stars were unfamiliar with American culture, a lot of the latest hopefuls will turn up because of a movie made in Hollywood 8,600 milles away.
Not a baseball fan?
Originally scheduled to premiere in New York on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Stanley Kubrick’s classic cold war comedy “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” is being shown in a new restoration for its 50th anniversary beginning Friday at Film Forum on Houston Street. Peter Sellers plays four roles, including a president trying to prevent an accidental nuclear strike on the Soviet Union — and the title role, a German-born advisor who argues Doomsday isn’t necessarily such bad thing. George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden and Slim Pickens provide memorable support.
— Lou Lumenick