New Delhi: Bollywood star Deepika Padukone announced that Padukone School of Badminton will expand to 75 centres within a year of its launch. This was announced when Deepika Padukone celebrated her father, legendary badminton player Prakash Padukone’s 70th birthday in style. The actor announced that their Padukone School of Badminton will expand to 75 centres within a year of its launch.
Deepika Padukone said the school, which was launched last year, aims to build a healthier and more focused generation that’s inspired by sport. The actor, who is the daughter of the legendary badminton player Prakash Padukone, shared the news on Instagram. As someone who grew up playing badminton, I’ve experienced firsthand how much this sport can shape one’s life physically, mentally, and emotionally. Through Padukone School of Badminton, we hope to bring the joy and discipline of Badminton to people from all walks of life and build a generation that is healthier, more focused, and inspired by sport, she wrote in the post on Instagram.
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While Deepika Padukone serves as the founder of PSB, her father, Prakash Padukone, is on board as its mentor and advisor. According to the post, the PSB plans to scale to 100 centres by the end of this year and 250 within the next three years.
In the past, the 39-year-old actor has often spoken about playing badminton during her growing up years in multiple interviews. I remember that one morning, she woke up and said, ‘Ma, I have been thinking about this for a long time now.’ I have been playing badminton, and only because Papa wants me to, but it’s not something I enjoy doing; I seriously want to take up modelling and get into movies. I didn’t take her seriously, and then she said that I had been thinking about this for the past couple of nights. You wait and see; I will make you proud one day,” she had said.
Deepika Padukone became a model doing advertisements and music videos. She eventually made her film debut in 2007 with Om Shanti Om, co-starring Shah Rukh Khan. The actor also runs The Live Love Laugh Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at mental health awareness and wellness. She was recently in the news for her reported exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Spirit following a fallout with the director over work hours and remuneration. Deepika Padukone last week joined the cast of her Jawan director Atlee’s upcoming big-budget sci-fi movie starring Pushpa star Allu Arjun.
