There’s a Nawazuddin Siddiqui soundtrack playing behind the inscrutable face that Pramod Bhagat wears to any match — even the one where the SL3 class shuttler had India’s first ever para badminton medal, a gold, around his neck after a 21-14, 21-17 final.
His buddy Sukant Kadam, world No. 5 in SL4, and his roommate, started chanting Bhagat’s favourite line from the gritty film Manjhi: “Jab tak todenge nahin, tab tak chhodenge nahin.” He wouldn’t leave Daniel Bethell, till he broke the Englishman.
While SL3 refers to players with standing or lower limb or minor impairments, SL4 has players with more severe impairments.
Down 4-11 in the second game at Tokyo, with the match drifting away seemingly into a decider, Bhagat would go into what Kadam calls his Dhoni mode. “He keeps unreally calm, never reacts and enjoys these situations where he has to make up leads,” he says, of the 2009, ’15 and ’19 world champ.
Bhagat keeps it simple: “I just tell myself I’m the best. Chill.” It’s what he told himself every time he stepped onto the court — at Attabira in Odisha, where he took to badminton, thinking the outdoor court a walk in the park, despite the polio-afflicted left leg dragging his movements; when he realised what acute poverty meant, with a couple adopting him and encouraging him to play every sport; and when after three world singles titles, he found himself in a Paralympic final, wanting to cap a career with the absolute gold.
Bhagat would kickstart India’s journey in badminton’s debut at the Paralympics, with the country expecting three more medals, including gold from Noida District Magistrate Suhas LY and Krishna Nagar, Sunday.
Manish Narwal won India’s third gold medal Saturday in P4 Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event (arm impairment to lesser extent) while Singhraj Adhana brought up a 1-2 finish in the event, with a silver. Manoj Sarkar bagged the bronze behind Bhagat in SL3.
Shooter Avani Lakhera will also aim to match Joginder Singh’s record of three medals in one Paralympics Sunday.
India is already well past its best ever Paralympics performance, with 17 medals, including 4 golds, and is 26th on the medal table.
Kadam recalls the time spent with the newly minted champion, whom he found without airs and with a dramatic sense of humour, peppering badminton analyses with movie lines. “He sleeps very few hours. He is constantly into badminton, and loves the sport, philosophising on it. “Neend raat bhar kyun nahin aati… Pehle aati thi haal-e-dil pe hansi, ab kisi baat pe nahin aati (Why can’t I sleep all night… Earlier I was able to laugh at the predicament of my heart, but now I am unable to laugh at anything)” — unable to sleep one night in Tokyo, this Mirza Ghalib couplet is what Bhagat would text his Academy mates.
On Saturday though, he would goof about at the medal ceremony, after pulling off the silent heist with an 11-point rally. “Point by point,” he would say later of his meticulous accumulation of winners, inducing errors in the opponent.
Bhagat has coached in schools, riffed inspiration from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, after whose retirement he stopped watching cricket, and tweaked his 10 pieces of prosthetics to get the exact one to aid him after his ankle bent outward. “He is like a scientist with his left leg prosthetic. He keeps making minute changes on it. Number of shoe pairs = 4. Number of prosthetics = 10,” Kadam says.
Not an attacking player, obsessed with winning and summoning strokes cannily from his vast bouquet, Bhagat would net India’s historic medal wrong footing Bethell, who stopped back a little thinking the shuttle would travel further, but the Indian looped it close. “He is very creative in strokes. There is a deception manoeuvre he aces — primes to play a toss, but drops his racquet with a zap, connecting with shuttle at knee level to confuse his rival,” Kadam says. “But it’s his legendary calm. He is never panicky. This gold was about years of patience and sudden acceleration,” he says about the 34-year-old.
Soon after the medal, Bhagat would tell Kadam in a brief call how he imagined the scenes of his well-wishers celebrating. He was chuckling how it would be in India, though deep down he would dedicate the medal to his biological and adoptive parents who raised him. “He lost his mother at the start of the pandemic. Then Tokyo got cancelled and he was depressed. But then badminton rescued him,” Kadam says.
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Bhagat likes excesses in moderation. “He will live on fruits for days, and go to McDonald’s and have three large French fries. He loves sweets, kaju katli. So to compensate for the cheat meals once in a blue moon, he eats very little otherwise,” Kadam says, of the eccentric method to his madness.
Bhagat is also known to tell juniors that stadiums don’t matter. “They are just places where you have to win. Drift, conditions are all tamed if you focus on winning,” he recalls. He won’t forget Tokyo in a hurry though.
Shivani Naik is a senior sports journalist and Assistant Editor at The Indian Express. She is widely considered one of the leading voices in Indian Olympic sports journalism, particularly known for her deep expertise in badminton, wrestling, and basketball.
Professional Profile
Role: Assistant Editor and Columnist at The Indian Express.
Specialization: While she covers a variety of sports, she is the primary authority on badminton for the publication. She also writes extensively about tennis, track and field, wrestling, and gymnastics.
Writing Style: Her work is characterized by "technical storytelling"—breaking down the biomechanics, tactics, and psychological grit of athletes. She often provides "long reads" that explore the personal journeys of athletes beyond the podium.
Key Topics & Recent Coverage (Late 2025)
Shivani Naik’s recent articles (as of December 2025) focus on the evolving landscape of Indian sports as athletes prepare for the 2026 Asian Games and beyond:
Indian Badminton's "Hulks": She has recently written about a new generation of Indian shuttlers characterized by power and physicality, such as Ayush Shetty and Sathish Karunakaran, marking a shift from the traditionally finesse-based Indian style.
PV Sindhu’s Resurgence: A significant portion of her late-2025 work tracks PV Sindhu’s tactical shifts under new coaching, focusing on her "sparkle" and technical tweaks to break out of career slumps.
The "Group of Death": In December 2025, she provided detailed tactical previews for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s campaign in the BWF World Tour Finals.
Tactical Deep Dives: She frequently explores technical trends, such as the rise of "backhand deception" in modern badminton and the importance of court drift management in international arenas.
Legacy and History: She often revisits the careers of legends like Saina Nehwal and Syed Modi, providing historical context to current Indian successes.
Notable Recent Articles
BWF World Tour Finals: Satwik-Chirag have it all to do to get through proverbial Group of Death. (Dec 2025)
The age of Hulks in Indian badminton is here. (Dec 2025)
Treadmill, Yoganidra and building endurance: The themes that defined the resurgence of Gayatri and Treesa. (Dec 2025)
Ayush Shetty beats Kodai Naraoka: Will 20-year-old be the headline act in 2026? (Nov 2025)
Modern Cinderella tale – featuring An Se-young and a shoe that fits snugly. (Nov 2025)
Other Sports Interests
Beyond the court, Shivani is a passionate follower of South African cricket, sometimes writing emotional columns about her irrational support for the Proteas, which started because of love for Graeme Smith's dour and doughty Test playing style despite being a left-hander, and sustained over curiosity over their heartbreaking habit of losing ICC knockouts.
You can follow her detailed analysis and columns on her official Indian Express profile page. ... Read More
