The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy - known for producing world-class badminton players - recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.
As part of this joyous occasion, Bengaluru sports legends namely Prakash Padukone, Rahul Dravid, Pullella Gopichand and Sunil Chhetri were present at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence event.
Actor and Prakash Padukone's daughter Deepika Padukone shared an emotional Instagram post for her father. She wrote, "Pappa, Your contribution to Badminton and Indian Sport is immeasurable! Thank You for your dedication, discipline, determination and years of hard work! We love you and are proud of you! Thank You for being you!".
She even posted an Insta story of all the sports stars under one roof. The sports panel also included co-founder of Infosys Narayana Murthy.
Earlier, Gopichand had spoken about Prakash Padukone and how he was hurt after Saina Nehwal left his academy to join the Padukone's facility.
In the book 'Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games', the former All-England champion and national head coach Gopichand spoke about the difficult times, also corroborated by Saina's husband and former CWG gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap.
Gopichand said he wondered why the legendary Padukone, India's first badminton superstar "never had anything positive to say about him".
Gopichand in the book's chapter titled 'Bitter Rivalry' revealed how bad he had felt when Saina decided to join Padukone's academy to train under Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru after 2014 World Championship.
"It was as if something very dear was being taken away from me. Earlier, I had literally begged her (Saina) not to go. But by then she had been influenced by others and had already made up her mind. While I didn't want to hold her back and stall her progress, I knew this was something that wasn't beneficial for either of us," Gopichand revealed in the book.
