CHENNAI: Her sister has taken Bollywood by storm and now Anisha Padukone is receiving her fair share of attention at Chennai's Cosmopolitan Golf Course where she is participating in the Indian Golf Union's Madras Ladies Golf championship.
The younger daughter of badminton ace Prakash Padukone, Anisha took to golf when she was 12. She has participated in seven all India amateur tournaments but begun playing in national level tournaments just last year.
"As a kid I used to go with my father to the Karnataka Golf Association course and gradually grew interested in the game. Many people thought Deepika and I should have carried the legacy of my father by pursuing badminton but we never liked the game that much. My father never forced us to take up badminton as a career. He has been very supportive and always encouraged us to do whatever we wanted to," said Anisha.
On her star sister she has this to say: "Deepika played badminton but she was not serious about it. She had always shown a great interest in modelling and she worked on that sincerely. And now you can see where she has reached," she added. Though Anisha looks up to her sister as an actor, she's clear she wants no role in films.
"To me, my sister is the best actor and a great dancer. I liked her a lot in 'Om Shanti Om'. She acted really well and I'm sure she will continue to grow as an actor. But unlike Deepika, I'm not interested in acting or modelling. I'm a sportswoman and want to make it big by playing golf at the highest level," said the 17-year-old Bangalore girl, who is now training under the watchful eyes of Vijay Divecha at the Bangalore Golf Club.
A keen sportsperson, Anisha played almost all sport before settling on golf.
"In the beginning, I played almost everything — cricket, hockey, tennis — but suddenly I got addicted to golf and decided to continue playing the game," Anisha told TOI in an exclusive interview after a five-hour long slog at the silver division of the championship here on Wednesday.
But isn't the going tough for women golfers in India? "Who says that?" Anisha shoots back. "In the recent past, a huge number of golfers (women) have played in all national-level tournaments and the numbers are increasing gradually.
Moreover, a few Indian women are playing top-level golf on the international circuit as well. Smriti Mehra, Vandana Agarwal, Parnita Garewal, Nonita Lal Qureshi, Shalini Malik have been playing for a long time. I know it is not easy for a girl but I have enough conviction in my ability," she said.
And that conviction is rooted in hard work. "I hit the gym thrice in a week and follow a strict regime. Everyone thinks a golfer doesn't need fitness because it is a leisure sport, but that is not true. From your calf muscle to neck muscle you need to take care of everything," said Anisha, an ardent fan of David Beckham. The young golfer has her career plan all chalked out. "Once I finish my studies in Bangalore, I'm planning to take off a year to train hard and then plan to move to the US for my graduation where I can avail of better training in golf.
"If everything goes according to plan, eight years down the line, I'll become a professional golfer. And then nobody will call me Prakash Padukone's daughter or Deepika's sister. I want people to recognise them as Anisha's father and elder sister," she signs off confidently.
'Deepika's real age' turned out to be quite the highlight all throughout the 'Om Shanti Om' promotions as fans and media was impressed to learn that the Bollywood debutante was merely 19-year old when she met Farah Khan first. In fact, Shahrukh even joked that working with her was like working with a 'child labor' as she was only 20 when shooting for the movie; the actress had then shared that has was barely 9 when she first saw SRK's flick 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'.
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