HIS TEAM OWNER called him "the poster boy of kabaddi."
He is 23 and has been part of many successful Team India campaigns. He is an effective raider who stands apart from others due to his extraordinary aerial agility and reflex. He is the reason the entire state of Uttar Pradesh supports a southern team Telugu Titans in the Pro Kabaddi League.
With dashing looks and an on-court charisma that makes him a natural leader, Rahul Chaudhari has without doubt emerged as the biggest superstars of the Pro Kabaddi League. Over the last 2-odd years, the boy from Binjor saw his life change forever, with fame and wealth crashing onto his doorstep. The airports he frequented without turning a head as an Air India employee, now see him being stopped often by fans for autographs and selfies.
Speaking to TFG, Rahul appeared to be taking his newfound stardom with a relative calm, unwilling to make a big deal out of it. It's when talking about the game of kabaddi, his single biggest passion and persuasion since he was 13, that his eyes light up with the zealous excitement that you see in the most dedicated athletes.
"One point," Rahul exclaimed in a low voice, clenching his fist, "It's all about that one extra point."
Rahul attributed it all to the success of the Pro Kabaddi League, which has found instant success with its brand of revamped, well-packaged, thrilling presentation of the sport,
"I never thought the sport I love would get so much popularity, so suddenly. We're lucky Pro Kabaddi happened during our playing days. Our predecessors, seniors who have done great things during their careers, wish they got the same kind of exposure we are getting. And this publicity is really helping raise interest in the sport, especially among aspiring youngsters who can see a future playing kabaddi professionally."
Seeing the traditional sport in its new glamourous avatar has changed many minds, opined Rahul. Kids are more interested in playing the game, and there are more parents around who are ready to support their kids' ambition to become professional kabaddi players. Rahul spoke about the effects of Pro Kabaddi on his home province,
"The craze has really gone up. A few years ago, a kabaddi tournament in my district would see just three or four teams participating, and it would get over in one day. But nowadays it takes three to four days to wrap them up because there are too many teams. They actually have to close down entry after sixty or seventy teams have been listed."
He was happy that the Indian kabaddi players, the best in the world, were finally being viewed as role models for kids. Barely able to hold back a smile, Rahul shared a recent experience,
"Recently I was passing a place near my village. I saw a bunch of kids playing kabaddi by the road and stopped to watch. The children had named themselves after Pro Kabaddi stars, like Rahul and Anup. I asked them, if they saw Rahul Chaudhuri, would they recognise him? They said yes. I had grown a beard back then so they didn't know it was me. So when I told them who I was they were awestruck. Then they got really excited about me being there. I had to literally run out of that place afterwards."
And he took comfort from the fact that once these aspiring kids enter the competitive kabaddi circuits, they are likely to get proper guidance from coaches and better facilities earlier than those who came before,
"The medical attention that we used to get before has gone up. The emphasis on technique has also risen. The teams now have multiple coaches, so individual players get to spend a lot more time with them, and the coaches can focus on improving a player's game more efficiently. This will help us in the long term, as they players will be able to take care of themselves and extend their career by four-five years."
And the changes are not only happening at home, but abroad as well. Rahul spoke about the increasing competition from other national teams that India has been facing recently. The sport was spreading out to newer parts of the world, he said,
"Internationally the games are getting more competitive. India has always been a front-runner in world kabaddi, we have grabbed golds in all major events. The game is getting a lot of interest from other countries as well because Pro Kabaddi gets a lot of coverage worldwide. Recently when we played in the South Asian Games we got a lot of tough fight. Opponent teams are are studying each of our players' video clips to find out how they play, what their weaknesses are. So they are getting better. It's good competition for us. Hopefully kabaddi will eventually make it into Olympics. Then India will have a gold guaranteed. (Laughs) I wish PKL had happened before, we'd have had a much bigger following right now. The next generation of players will have an absolutely fabulous platform to perform both at home and abroad."
Although Pro Kabaddi closely follows the widely-practiced "national style" kabaddi, it has its own little rules to make things more interesting. Rahul said that while the new rules took some getting used to, he was really liking the results it brought,
"The changed rules have made the game much more interesting. The games have become faster and there are more twists in the game with the third tackle rule, super tackles and the like. It's pulling in the crowd and we love that too. It has made the match much more cerebral as well. There's a lot more consideration that goes into raiding and defending strategies, to avoid empty raids and bag extra points. They used to say, kabaddi is a game of brawns. But the brains are just as important today."
But having two seasons of PKL a year was pushing things a bit, Rahul said, although he considered it to be a good thing for kabaddi to be in the news and players to get more game time in a competitive league like this,
"It's up to the federation and other stakeholders to decide the schedule. But it would be good if there weren't two seasons a year. Around January-February many of the kids can't watch the PKL due to exams being around. For us it's nice enough, we do it twice and make more money. But it would be ideal to have one season per year."
One reason he loved playing in the PKL, Rahul said, was the new experiences it brought him as a player and as a captain. At Telugu Titans, he captains a team with a handful of foreign players in it: something very new in kabaddi. But it doesn't take long for the team to gel as a unit and get past language and nationality barriers, Rahul said,
"Pakistani players understand Hindi so there's no issues communicating with them. We have one from Iran; he needs an interpreter to understand us. Whatever on-the-spot communication we do on the court is the based on mutual understanding and knowledge of the sport. Simple gestures are often enough for that."
And as captain, Rahul said he felt personally responsible to stage a Telugu Titans turnaround this season, to wipe off the less-than-great showings of the previous seasons,
"We have a good team this season. We've been working hard to address our mistakes. So I hope the fans turn out in large numbers as always. Hyderabad won the IPL, and I promise to do everything to bring the PKL title to the city as well."
And then, from the calm soft-spoken demeanor of the superstar, out came the chiseled fighting spirit that has driven him as a sportsman all his life, as Rahul spoke passionately about the preparations for PKL 4,
"We have been great when it comes to raiding. But in defence we have fallen short. That's why we have recruited the likes of Jasmer Singh Gulia, Sandeep Narwal, Vinod Kumar and the likes. In the past we have always fallen short by one point. Lost a game by one point, fell one point short in the points table... this time, it's all about that one extra point. We're going to fight our guts out for that one point."
With clenched fists, Rahul Chaudhari seemed to be re-living the memories of the previous seasons, and constantly searching for ways to avoid repeating the old mistakes that they reminded him of. At this moment, the glamour, the cameras, the stardom, nothing seemed to matter to him; he was engrossed in kabaddi and its purest appeal that the sport reserved for its highest disciples. This is something he has dedicated his life to, and the journey continues, to heights ever greater.