The first season of cash-rich Star Sports Pro Kabaddi brought back the ancient game of kabaddi to the hearts and minds of millions around the world. Bollywood has never lacked behind in giving the audience a taste of movies based on sports. Cricket, undoubtedly is the most popular sport in India, but games like hockey, boxing, badminton, kabaddi and others are slowly picking up.Although Hindi cinema has been a bit reluctant in making the movies based on kabaddi, there are some regional directors and producers who have shown a kind interest in promoting the game through the big screen.So let’s take a look at top 5 movies based on the game of kabaddi:
#1 Badlapur Boys - 2014
Badlapur Boys is probably the only Hindi movie whose prime focus is kabaddi. Remake of a Tamil super hit ‘Veenila Kabadi’, the movie focuses on a group of U.P village (Badlapur) boys, who are ready to give their lives for this game. Badlapur boys is an amateur team, who competes at the kabaddi biggest competition in Uttar Pradesh in order to save their drought-ridden village. The movie also shows some colours of the Aamir Khan’s Oscar nominated movie ‘Lagaan’.
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With Nishan Nanaiah, Saranya Mohan and Annu Kapoor as lead actors, Badlapur Boys is tailor-made for sports lovers. The movie also adds a flavor of comic, revenge, romance and action sequences until the very end, where it surprises everyone with an unthinkable plot twist.
Even though Badlapur boys failed to create at any impact at the box office, it still received a positive word of mouth from most people who watched this action thriller at the theatres.
#2 Kabaddi Once Again (2012)
Released in June 2012, ‘Kabaddi Once Again’ is a Punjabi movie directed by Sukhminder Dhanjal and stars Varinder Singh Ghuman, Sudeepa Singh and Jaswinder Bhalla. This movie shows the darker side of the game. It touches on sensitive topics like human trafficking and match fixing, done in the name of kabaddi. The movie also exploits the dirty truth of how fixing is done with the help of illegal drugs and fake players.
Classified as inspirational and motivational, the movie revolves around Shingara (Varinder Singh Ghuman) and his determination to defeat the corrupt and evil forces in order to restore the faith of public in this game.
With a total collection of Rs 1.50 crores, the movie failed to strike a chord with the public at the Pollywood box office.
#3 Kabaddi (2009)
Kabaddi, directed by Narendra babu is a Kannada movie which also won the ‘Best Film’ award at Karnataka State Film awards in 2009. The story revolves around Praveen, a kabaddi player trained by a dedicated and passionate coach, Kishore. The movie also portrays a love affair and how Praveen fights the battle of odds in order to win her lover as well as the game.
The movie also features some real life kabaddi players in important roles. Everything about the film has the stamp of the culture and ethos of Karnataka starting from the choice of characters, dialogues and music. Despite getting critical acclaim, the movie failed to stifle the box office.
#4 Ghilli (2004)
Ghilli is a 2004 Tamil action film directed by Dharani, produced by A.M Rathnam and starred Vijay, Trisha and Prakash Raj. The movie revolves around Muthupandy (Prakash Raj), who is obsessed with Dhanlaxmi (Trisha Krishnan) and wants to marry her at any cost. Vijay, is a son of Assistant Commissioner of Police and is a state-level kabaddi player. He accidentaly meets Dhanlaxmi while going for a tournament in Madurai.
Even though the movie focuses more on love and revenge, Kabaddi is also seen in the backdrops. The National Kabaddi Championship is also shown in the climax of the movie. The movie was a blockbuster as it earned a total of Rs. 30 crores in India.
#5 Okkadu
This 2003 Telugu melodrama movie focuses on a young kabaddi player Ajay, played by Mahesh Babu. He goes to Kurnool, which is divided in factions, to take part in a life-changing kabaddi match where his sports future would be determined. In the process, he faces off against evil leader Obul Reddy (Prakash Raj), who wants to be with Swapna Reddy’s (Bhoomika Chawla) despite her love for Ajay.
Whether Ajay goes on to win the love of her life against the goon who had killed both of Swapna’s brothers and achieve his kabaddi target forms the crux of the movie.
This movie directed by Gunasekhar received wide acclaim and even won the Filmfare best film award apart from many other distinctions at different award shows.
