Kangana Ranaut's 'Panga', other films highlighting Kabaddi as a sport in India

The Hindi film industry has churned out quite a few movies that dealt with different sports. Cricket undoubtedly is one of the most popular sports in India, but games like hockey, boxing, badminton, kabaddi are also slowly being picked up as subjects by many makers. Though Bollywood does not feature many movies that focus on kabbadi, there are some regional directors and producers who have shown a keen interest in promoting the game through the big screen. Take a look at some of the famous movies based on the game of kabaddi.

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Panga

Featuring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill and Megha Burman in prominent roles, the film Panga has been directed by Ashwiny I. Tiwary. The sports drama flick is about a housewife, Jaya (Kangana Ranaut), who is a former kabbadi player. She wishes to resume her career in sports, but first, she must fight her inner conflicts as well as society which has certain expectations from her. The film released on January 24, 2020, but failed to perform well at the box-office.

Badlapur Boys

Badlapur Boys is a remake of a Tamil super hit film titled ‘Veenila Kabadi’. The film focuses on a group of Uttar Pradesh’s village (Badlapur) boys, who are ready to give their lives for the game of kabaddi.  Badlapur Boys is an amateur team that competes at the biggest kabaddi competition in Uttar Pradesh to save their drought-ridden village. With Nishan Nanaiah, Saranya Mohan and Annu Kapoor in lead roles, the film also has a flavour of comic, revenge, romance and action themes. Even though the film failed to create any impact at the box office, it still received a positive word of mouth.

Kabaddi

Kabaddi is helmed by Narendra Babu. The film is a Kannada movie and also won the ‘Best Film’ award at Karnataka State Film awards in the year 2009. The story of the sports drama revolves around Praveen, a kabaddi player trained by a dedicated and passionate coach, Kishore. The film also portrays a love affair and how Praveen fights the battle of odds to win his lover as well as the game. Moreover, the film also features some real-life kabaddi players in prominent roles. Despite getting critical acclaim, the movie failed at the box office. 

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Kabaddi Once Again

Released in the year June 2012, ‘Kabaddi Once Again’ is a Punjabi film directed by Sukhminder Dhanjal. The film features Varinder Singh Ghuman, Sudeepa Singh and Jaswinder Bhalla in the leading roles. The film shows the darker side of the game Kabaddi and touches on sensitive topics like human trafficking and match-fixing. Termed as inspirational and motivational, the flick revolves around Shingara (Varinder Singh Ghuman) and his determination to defeat the corrupt and evil forces to restore the faith of the public in this game.

Okkadu

This 2003 Telugu melodrama film revolves around a young kabaddi player, Ajay, essayed by Mahesh Babu. He goes to Kurnool, which is divided into factions, to take part in a life-changing kabaddi match where his future would be determined. In the process, he faces off against evil leader Obul Reddy (portrayed by Prakash Raj), who wants to be with Swapna Reddy (played by Bhoomika Chawla) despite her love for Ajay. Whether Ajay will go to win the love of his life against the goon who had killed both of Swapna’s brothers and achieve his kabaddi target form the crux of a sports drama movie. The movie is helmed by Gunasekhar and received wide acclaim and even won the Filmfare best film award.

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