India is going sports-crazy. Fans are not only watching; they’re also playing. Which sport has the nation’s attention? Soccer? No, while popular, it’s not the new trend. Tennis? Getting closer.
The game of the day in India is badminton.
Badminton is second only to cricket in active participation in India. Why badminton? Call it the Saina Effect.
Saina Nehwal was 22 years old when she became India’s first winner of an Olympic badminton medal. She took the bronze in London four years ago—and became a star.
Soon Saina’s life will be the subject of a movie. India’s film industry, known as “Bollywood,” has found great commercial success in biopics about sports stars. (A biopic is a biographical motion picture.)
India’s biopics aren’t just well made. They’re also inspiring for a country that hasn’t produced a lot of world champions. Each has a plot twist or conflict the athlete overcomes. For Nehwal, the theme may be persistence more than actual hardship.
Saina was born to badminton-playing parents. Her father, now a scientist, was a university champion in the sport. Her mother won at a state level. Both parents gave their daughter their full support to pursue the sport they love. Saina began playing at age nine, working her way up to junior world champion at 18. She won her first World Superseries the next year. She has been ranked in the top four in the world ever since.
The national Badminton Association of India (BAI) is riding the wave of Saina’s success. In response to her popularity, the association organized India’s first badminton league. The league’s televised matches have the third highest viewing in the nation, after cricket and field hockey. Nehwal is the second highest-paid player in the world, just after top-ranked Malaysian player Lee Chong Wei.
Saina entered the 2016 Swiss Open in late March in the top-seeded position. But due to an injury, she did not make it through the semi-finals. Her place at the Rio Summer Olympics is practically secured however—barring further injury. BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta is confident that another Olympic medal is in her future.
Award-winning screenwriter Amole Gupte will direct the upcoming biopic. He finds Saina’s challenge even more reason to pull for her success. Gupte used the endearing Hindi word beti, which means daughter, to describe his vision for the film.
"It's a story of a tigress beti, princess beti, who has set fire to the badminton court with her prowess like no one else before," Gupte says. He called Saina "an icon for the young and the old, for a long time to come."
