The senior Padukone was so impressed by beti’s performance in Cocktail that he decided to gift Deepika his trophies
When your kid is a superstar, there is little you can do as a parent to surprise them, in terms of gifting them something special. Why? Well, because they already have the best of what money can buy! But for the Cocktail girl Deepika Padukone, it was a bit different. Her badminton champion father Prakash Padukone decided to give her what was most precious to him.
The senior Padukone gifted his coveted trophies as a present to Deepika for delivering a stellar performance in the hit film Cocktail. Sweet, no? This is one gift that money definitely can’t buy. And apparently, it was an impulsive decision by the father to give away his treasured possessions – the ones that he had earned after much hard work and perseverance on the field!
Well, we wish Deepika continues to sizzle and surprise us with her performances, and that she gets another special gift from daddy, this time for Race 2! What say, BollywoodLifers?
Prakash Padukone
Prakash Padukone (born 10 June 1955) is a former Indian badminton player. He was ranked World No. 1 in 1980; the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982 by the Government of India. He is one of the co-founders of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of Olympic sports in India.
Prakash Padukone career
Prakash was initiated into the game by his father Ramesh Padukone, who was the Secretary of the “Mysore Badminton Association” for many years.
Padukone’s first official tournament was the Karnataka state junior championship in 1962. Though he lost in the very first round, two years later he managed to win the state junior title. He changed his playing style into a more aggressive style in 1971, and won the Indian national junior title in 1972. He also won the senior title the same year. He won the National title consecutively for the next seven years. In 1978, he won his first major international title, the men’s singles gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada. In 1979, he won the “Evening of Champions” at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
In 1980, he won the Danish Open, the Swedish Open and became the first Indian to win the men’s singles title at the All England Championship with a victory over Indonesian rival Liem Swie King. He spent much of his international career training in Denmark, and developed close friendships with European players such as Morten Frost.
bollywoodlife.com, 12.27.2012
