5 Indian sporting heroes who deserve a biopic

B-town is undergoing a biopic boom of sorts. And if you love both Bollywood and sports, sports biopics are one of the best things that can happen to you. 2016 could be rightly called the year of sports biopics, with many inspirational stories of sportspersons shown on the big screen.

From how a ticket collector ended Indian Cricket’s World Cup drought, to a female wrestler winning gold at the Commonwealth Games after coming from a patriarchal rural Indian society, movie-makers brought a fresh lease of life to Bollywood, and the country loved it.

One look at the golden chronicles of Indian sports, and there are plenty of achievers, who have made India proud at the global level. While it may seem tricky to make a biopic on each and every sportsperson who has done India proud, there are a few shortlisted names of Indian sports heroes whose stories and achievements deserve to be told on the big-screen.

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#1 Vishwanathan Anand

Anand is a sportsperson who rarely hogs the limelight but has achieved laurels which the chess fraternity envies.

Born into a middle-class family, Anand's father was a general manager at Southern Railways, and his mother was a housewife. It was Anand's mother who first taught him how to play chess at the tender age of 6 years.

Anand is considered one of the best rapid chess players of his generation. He remained the undisputed King of chess from 2007 to 2013. He won the World Chess Championship 5 times – in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. Anand also won the Chess Oscar 6 times, and is one of the six players to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list. There are several other international medals to his names, and his story of concentration would make a great film.

Among several awards, the most notable ones that he has received are the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri, and Arjuna Award.

#2 Abhinav Bindra

Abhinav Bindra needs no introduction. India’s sole individual gold medalist at the Olympic Games, the shooting star has flown the Indian flag high in each and every event he has represented the country. Bindra has represented India with his cool, calm demeanour, and professionalism of the highest standards.

After Anjali Bhagwat, Abhinav Bindra became the poster boy for the sport of shooting in India. in 2008, after fighting his fatal back injury, Abhinav rose like a phoenix and clinched India’s first individual Olympic gold medal. He may not have been able to repeat his success at the subsequent Olympics, but was and is a key player in promoting the sport in India.

Bindra, a child prodigy, was bestowed with national awards during his teens, like the Arjuna Award at 18 years and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna at 19. A year after his breakthrough success in Beijing, Bindra was honoured with India's third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.

He announced his retirement from the game after playing his last Olympics in 2016.

From being a child prodigy to becoming India’s first Gold medalist in the Olympics, this story deserves a special appearance on the big-screen.

#3 PT Usha

We all have heard of PT Usha’s name, but not all of us know that she has won a whopping 101 international medals. And this is exactly why her story needs to be told and enacted.

Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha aka “Payyoli Express” is one of the greatest athletes to have represented India on the tracks in the Olympics. Her fourth position in 400 meters hurdles in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, is by far the closest to an Olympic medal on the tracks by an Indian female athlete.

She has won 101 international medals and her list of achievements is probably longer than the career of most of our Bollywood celebrities. At the age of 16, she became the youngest Indian sprinter to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Her journey from the humblest of the beginnings to the “Queen of Indian Track and Field” remains very inspirational. Presently, Usha runs her coaching academy in Kerala.

#4 Pankaj Advani

Billiards player Pankaj Advani has several feats to his name. And the interesting facts about him are worth a read.

After losing his father at the age of six, Pankaj was introduced to the sport by his elder brother Dr. Shree Advani, a noted Sport & Performance Psychologist. Advani’s Coach Arvind Savur rejected him the first time he went to him because he was too short. But later he overlooked that and took him under his wings.

He won his first title at just 12 years of age, going on to make new records. At 18 years of age, he became the youngest Indian to win the IBSF World Snooker Championship on October 25, 2003, in Jiangmen, China.

Advani won the IBSF World Billiards Championship in 2005 at Qawra, Malta, where he became the first to achieve a "grand double" by winning both the time and point formats, a feat he repeated at the 2008 event in Bangalore.

Advani retired from pro snooker in 2014 as he decided to focus on playing billiards. So many acclamations and such little popularity, this man deserves your attention.

#5 Karnam Malleswari

In case you are hearing the name for the first time, Andhra Pradesh’s Karanam Malleswari is the first Indian weightlifter and first Indian woman to bag a medal in Olympics.

In 2000, at the Sydney Olympic games, she lifted 110 kg in the snatch and 130 kg in the clean and jerk for a total lift of 240 kg. She later stated that she was disheartened on missing out the gold medal. To this day, Malleswari maintains that gold was in her grasp.

As per Malleswari, her coaches miscalculated and had her lift 137.5 kg in her final attempt for the gold. However, she failed, and she would have won gold even if she had lifted 132.5 kg.

What made her feat remarkable was the fact that the Sydney Games was her first ever international meet since moving up to 69 kg division. Back in the year 1994, Malleswari won gold in a world championship in Istanbul and in 1995 she won the Asian Championship in Korea in the 54 kg category.

In a country which is still considered largely patriarchal, we need more stories like Malleswari’s to be told.