‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Mohabbatein’ actors bring arm-wrestling to masses

Launched in 2020 by actor couple Parvin Dabas (‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’) and Preeti Jhangiani (‘Mohabbatein’, ‘Kafas’), PPL is set to make its television debut from July 28, giving the actors who were driven to the fringes of showbiz, a second chance to face the camera

MUMBAI: As a tabletop game, panja is not in the same league as chess or TT. But, a new Pro Panja League (PPL) is making a play on changing that.

In 2017, he had started a video podcast and a website on MMA India, which was his professional entry into sports. He wouldn’t call it “a switch” from films though. “I would call it a parallel track. Of course, it has taken a lot of our time, especially in the last four or five months. But, I’ve always been a sportsman at heart. So, it’s a real honour for me to be part of a sport like this.” (HT PHOTO)

Launched in 2020 by actor couple Parvin Dabas (‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’) and Preeti Jhangiani (‘Mohabbatein’, ‘Kafas’), PPL is set to make its television debut from July 28, giving the actors who were driven to the fringes of showbiz, a second chance to face the camera.

The 17-day event, which will be hosted at the IGI stadium in New Delhi, will feature 180 arm-wrestlers, divided into six teams. Where are so many players coming from? Real India, says Dabas, as the key promoter. “This isn’t a sport for the elite, in which you require an expensive racket or gear. It has a low financial entry point. All you need is a table in a mohalla. So, our players are truly the sons and daughters of the soil.”

For the past three years, Dabas and Jhangiani have been hosting on-ground panja tournaments across the country, trying to develop the sport and gauging the audience reaction. “You see the excitement for panja in places such as Hoshiarpur and Bhind,” says Dabas. “It’s a sport for the masses, everybody understands it, and there’s a simplicity to it. It has deep penetration in the country, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. After it is televised, I think there’ll be an even bigger understanding on the professional side of the sport.”

All hands on deck

For Dabas, who grew up and studied in Delhi, panja was a common game since “there’s a bit of testosterone” there. “I think everybody’s played panja in their childhood or during college. It’s seen both as a non-formal and a formal sport. In college festivals, it is a proper competition, especially in the north. Several of my cousins were so good that whenever they would visit any college, the first tough guy they met, they would ask, ‘Panja ladayega?’ The other guy couldn’t say no, because it was a matter of izzat then. So, it was interesting to see these huge guys doing panja everywhere. That always stuck around in my head.”

In 2017, he had started a video podcast and a website on MMA India, which was his professional entry into sports. He wouldn’t call it “a switch” from films though. “I would call it a parallel track. Of course, it has taken a lot of our time, especially in the last four or five months. But, I’ve always been a sportsman at heart. So, it’s a real honour for me to be part of a sport like this.”

For those who think panja is just a show of strength, Dabas clarifies, “Panja has a very strong technique. Most of our arm-wrestlers will be able to beat guys two or three times their size. Because it’s a matter of focus, of training certain muscles in your body, of knowing how to use those muscles.” While players from the northern belt are to be expected, those from Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam and even Kerala feature heavily. “Forty per cent of our champions are from Kerala. I have asked them ki, ‘Kerala ke paani mein kya hai?’ For their state competition, so many athletes turn up that it’s like a national.”

Panja is actually even more omnipresent than kabaddi, he says. “I think more people would have played panja than kabaddi. If it’s presented in the right manner, panja has a huge audience. Because we are all interested in two people facing each other and seeing who would win, especially if one of those people interests us.”

Jhangiani echoes: “I had no idea arm-wrestling was played professionally. But, when I first saw an arm-wrestling match, it was a thrilling and edge-of-the-seat experience. To give you an example on what it felt like: when we did a tournament at the Gateway of India, we had few people in the audience because it was still between two COVID bouts, and only a few VIPs were there. None of the spectators knew the players, none of them had seen a live match before. By the end of the tournament, they were standing on their seats and cheering the players’ names. That’s what a panja match does to you. That’s what it did to me.”