Biopic to unfold inspiring story of Pullela Gopichand announced on the champion’s birthday
Mumbai, November 16: Since last five to six years biopic has become a favourite trend in Bollywood. As many directors are making biopics, the audience also likes the genre more. After Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Saina Nehwal, now people will watch another famous sports stars on silver screen. Pullela Gopichand, chief national coach of the Indian badminton team and Padma Shri awardee is next in the row. This is a great way to recognize the talent of him on his birthday.
“Badminton is at an inflection point in our country and nothing delights me more than to see the rapidly growing interest in the sport, especially with the youth. I would be proud if by sharing my story as a film, we can encourage more and more people to pursue their dreams. I am excited with the developments on the film and look forward to Vikram and Fox Star taking this film to the masse,” Pullela Gopichand commented as a Bollywood magazine reported.
The coach of now Indian national team was once a famous badminton player also. After Prakash Padukone, he was the second Indian to win All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014. He was also trained in Prakash Padukone Academy.
Gopichand has been a great player of badminton for India but his transformation into a coach is more enchanting. He founded his own academy after long 5 years of struggle to provide the support to young talents which he could not get. Gopichand Badminton Academy has been churning out champion players like Saina Nehwal, P. Kashyap, Srikanth Kidambi, Gurusai Dutt, and Arun Vishnu since 2008.
He believes that strategizing for the game is a coach’s job and the player needs to only focus on training and execution of the strategy. But that doesn’t mean that the player gets it easy. Training in Gopichand’s world consists of six hours workout in a day, including nine 40 minutes sessions separated by just five minutes break.
He is not only a great coach but a man full of human values, principle when he was on the peak of his career, he turned down a lucrative offer from a cola major in the country to feature in their advertisements. While such players are a role model for youth, they really need to be a little bit more responsible to society. When money buys most of the stars, out of his own firm belief that aerated drinks are harmful to health he rejected the offer. A real model he is indeed.