An Evening That Glittered With Champions!

The Awards, which were previously held between 1994 and 2003 in their first avatar, were revived as Sportstar completed 40 years in 2018.

- Shreedutta Chidananda

Prakash Padukone was honoured for Lifetime Achievement while Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah shared the Sportsman of the Year (Cricket) accolade at the Sportstar Aces Awards ceremony in Mumbai recently. It was to warm, heartfelt applause that Padukone received his award, before an audience of stars on a grand evening at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. “This is an absolute fanboy moment,” confessed Sunil Gavaskar, chairman of the Awards jury, as he feted Padukone on stage. “For me you’re the greatest Indian sportsman ever. You paved the way for the badminton generation we now see. You’re a role model on and off the court.”

Padukone, while being typically self-effacing, expressed joy at the growth of Indian badminton. “I don’t think I deserve that much of praise. There are so many who’ve done so well. But I accept the award with all humility,” he said, before he was joined on stage by wife Ujjala, daughter Deepika and son­in­law Ranveer Singh. “I started playing badminton at a time when it was not very popular. In south India, badminton meant ‘ball badminton’; you had to say ‘shuttle badminton’ to qualify it. From there to where we are today...I’m happy to have played a small part in the evolution of Indian badminton. Around 10­15 years ago, Indian players would look at the draw for major tournaments and worry about facing the Chinese and the Indonesians. Today, it’s the other way around.”