5 Indian Olympic triumphs that deserve to be preserved on celluloid

3) Karnam Malleswari and her incredible journey to the Olympic podium

Karnam Malleswari - India's Golden Girl in Weightlifting

In 2000, Karnam Malleswari became India's first woman to win an Olympic medal, and her journey to that historic triumph in Sydney was nothing short of legendary. How a poor girl from a non-descript village in Andhra Pradesh overcame every obstacle in her way and went on to become a world champion deserves a biopic of its own.

They say, behind every successful man, there is a woman. However, as in the case of the iconic Phogat family, Malleswari's father is the reason she dared to dream big. He believed in giving equal opportunities to his four daughters, and the entire quartet went on to become reputed weightlifters.

However, Karnam stood out the most. At 18, she made a smashing debut at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1993 by winning a historic bronze medal, something unheard of in India. The very next year, she won a gold medal in the same discipline and went on to repeat the feat in 1995 and 1996.

However, Karnam's unexpected rise to fame and her marriage in 1997 raised some doubts about her abilities. Her decision to raise her weight wasn't met with much appreciation, and most critics had written her off.

But where there is a will, like they say, there is a way. Karnam further raised her weight to 69kg and stepped up her training. She lifted 110kg in the snatch category at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 to cement herself in the top three. An impressive lift of 130kg in clean and jerk guaranteed her a historic medal. However, the risk of raising the bar to 137.5kg didn't pay off, and Karnam had to be content with bronze. Had it paid off, she would not only have been India's first female Olympic medalist, but also its first individual gold medalist as well.