Prakash Padukone Biography 
Prakash Padukone is a former badminton player from India. He belongs to Bangalore. During 1970’s and 1980’s he was the top player for India participating in many international events. He won the All England Championship and became the first Indian to achieve this title. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and Padma Shri, 10 years later. Top actress of Bollywood - Deepika Padukone is his daughter. His second daughter Anisha Padukone is a golfer. Currently he runs a badminton academy at Bangalore - Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy. He still remains the iconic figure of Indian badminton. He is married to Ujala.
Prakash was born on June 10, 1955 in Bangalore. His father Ramesh Padukone was his true inspiration who encouraged him a lot to pursue a career in badminton. He was the Secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association for many years. Padukone's first official tournament was the Karnataka state junior championship in 1962. But he couldn’t win it and lost in the first round itself. But in 1964, he became state junior champion. In 1972, he won the Indian national junior title as well as senior title and for the next seven years, he held the senior title, becoming the top badminton player of India.
In 1978 Commonwealth Games held at Edmonton, he won men's singles gold medal which was his major international title, for the first time. In 1979, he won the Evening of Champions at the Royal Albert Hall, London followed by the Danish Open and the Swedish Open titles the next year. Thus he became the first Indian to win the men's singles title at the All England Championship. His training was mostly done at Denmark. He retired in the year 1991 and served as the chairman of the Badminton Association of India and Indian coach for a short period till he finally settled with his badminton academy.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 29, 2014
