Phogat, family of wrestlers
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"It felt strange. Like in the camp for Bulgaria and Spain, there were all Phogats and I was the only Malik in between them. But I did not mind... It was Geeta didi who showed us the way in 2012" --
Sakshi Malik, India's first female wrestler to win an Olympic medal (bronze, Rio, 2016)
Deepak Ansuia Prasad Bhardwaj, India.com
Weight category 48kg
Gold in (senior) National Championship, 2015 and 2016; Gold in Commonwealth Championship, 2016; Jaipur’s pro- Wrestling team paid Rs.36 lakh for her <> Daink Bhaskar
Weight category. 53 kg;
Gold in (junior) National Championship, 2016; Delhi’s pro- Wrestling team paid Rs.5 lakh for her. <> Daink Bhaskar
Mahaveer’s niece
Gold in (senior) National Championship, 2015; Silver in Asian Wrestling Championship, 2016; member of Punjab’s pro- Wrestling team, 2015
Weight category: 53 kg. <> Daink Bhaskar
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See also
Dangal and the Phogats
How much of Dangal is fiction?
New Indian Express, Five instances where Aamir Khan's Dangal deviated from the true story, 28th December 2016 lists the same five deviations from the truth.
While the core of director Nitesh Tiwari’s movie, Dangal, story holds true to the real life events of Mahavir Singh Phogat, director Nitesh Tiwari allowed himself a few cinematic liberties. Here are a few facts shown in Dangal that differ from what happened in the real life of the Phogats.
1. Was Mahavir Singh Phogat really disappointed at getting daughters?
In the movie, Mahavir Singh Phogat desperately wants a boy child so that he can win a gold medal for the country. He and his wife try four times to give birth to a boy, but instead give birth to four girls. However, in reality, it was the girls’ mother who was quite disappointed as she was the one who wished for a boy.
Geeta Phogat’s wrestler dad Mahavir Singh glorified in Aamir Khan’s Dangal, Dec 23, 2016, Hindustan Times/ PTI add more details:
When Geeta Phogat, the first Indian woman to win a gold in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games was born in 1988, her mother was quite disappointed as she was wishing for a boy, claims a new book on the Phogats.
The book “Akhada: The Authorized Biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat” tells that surprisingly Geeta’s mother Daya Kaur and not her father Mahavir was disappointed when she learnt that her first child was a girl.
Coached by her father, Geeta wrote her name in the record books as she became India’s woman gold medallist at the Commonwealth games prevailing over Aussie grappler Emily Bensted on October 7, 2010. That she was from Haryana, a state infamous for female foeticide, made her feat even more remarkable.
“As Mahavir stood amid the cheering crowd that day, his gaze locked in on his daughter with pride, the cold winter morning of 1988 flashed before his eyes. That was the day when he had held her in his arms and emphatically proclaimed one day she will make her family proud,” says the book.
“It was not so much a declaration made by a father overwhelmed at the birth of his firstborn as the solemn promise of a man torn apart by his family’s contempt towards his newborn because she was a girl,” says the book written by Hindustan Times journalist Saurabh Duggal.
“One can perhaps imagine the state of Mahavir’s mind as the father of a daughter in the late 80s, when girls were considered a liability. But, ironically, it was not Mahavir but his wife, Daya Kaur, who was hoping that their first child would be a boy,” writes Duggal.
“When the baby was born, the chill of the winter morning stung a little more fiercely as Daya realised that their firstborn was a girl. Her disappointment showed clearly on her face,” the book says.
“I have introduced the girls to wrestling with the aim of winning an Olympic gold for the country and until that happens, my mission will not be accomplished,” says Mahavir Singh Phogat.
2. Was there really a villainous coach as portrayed in the film?
Like Bollywood movies on sports, Dangal creates a villain in the coach Pramod Kadam at the National Sports Academy (played by Girish Kulkarni), who demands that Geeta disavow her previous training. In reality, this character is fictional and there is no such villainous coach in the life of Geeta Phogat or any of her sisters.
3. Did Geeta not Win a Single Tournament Before the Commonwealth Games?
In the movie, Geeta Phogat doesn’t win a single tournament before the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She also receives a lot of flak from the coach in the movie for not excelling on the international stage.
However, in reality, Geeta had earlier won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in 2009, where she competed in the 55kg freestyle wrestling category. Interestingly, Geeta’s 2010 CWG gold was followed by another gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in Melbourne in 2011!
4. Was Geeta’s real Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Match the Cliffhanger that is shown in the film?
In the movie, Geeta Phogat struggles to win the gold medal match in the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She scores a five-pointer in the nail-biting final round of the match and clinches the gold medal with a scoreline of 5-1, 4-6, 6-5.
However, in reality, Geeta Phogat completely dominated her opponent and won the match in just two rounds, unlike the one shown in the movie that went on to three rounds. Her score was 1-0, 7-0. Also, Geeta Phogat has long hair in the real match, while her reel counterpart in the movie has a really short hairstyle.
5. Was Mahavir Singh Phogat locked up during Geeta’s Commonwealth Games final match?
Not at all. Watch the video.
In the movie, Mahavir Singh Phogat is taken to a room and locked up by a person sent by the Indian wrestling team coach just before the gold medal match. As a result, he misses the entire final.
In reality, Mahavir Singh Phogat was in the stands during Geeta’s match and saw his daughter win the Commonwealth Games gold medal.
“As Mahavir stood amid the cheering crowd that day, his gaze locked in on his daughter with pride, the cold winter morning of 1988 flashed before his eyes. That was the day when he had held her in his arms and emphatically proclaimed one day she will make her family proud,” Saurabh Duggal describes in his book, ‘Akhada‘.
6. The actual conflict between Geeta’s coach and father Mahavir
Dangal portrays wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat’s tough training methods which pushed daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita and niece Vinesh to sporting stardom in wrestling.
Dangal’s climax is around Mahavir being locked out as Geeta wins the gold at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, showing the chief national coach in a negative role. (Read: Sushil to make WWE debut?)
However, unlike the reel character in Dangal, the real chief national coach, PR Sondhi, was the one who invited Mahavir to the pre-CWG camp in Patiala and only banished him because the overzealous father was providing training on the side, which would have led to injuries for his two girls, says Akhada, the book on the Mahavir Singh Phogat saga by Hindustan Times journalist, Saurabh Duggal.
Mahavir Phogat explains in the book: “I was not convinced with the intensity of the training the girls were undergoing at the camp. Hence, I decided to conduct extra training before their morning session at the camp.
“I knew the girls were not happy with double training, but one has to burn the body in the furnace to achieve something.”
Mahavir’s role in shaping the wrestling careers of his daughters and niece, unheard of in rural Haryana, was respected by Sondhi.
“During the camp, he expressed a keen interest in learning some techniques and our training protocol. We had no problem with that and wanted to support his mission of empowering women to achieve Olympic glory,” he says in the book.
Sondhi encouraged parents to visit the camp, but Mahavir, who temporarily shifted from Balali in Haryana, 250 km away from Patiala, with family to help his daughters and ensure home-cooked food, added training sessions of his own.
Mahavir Phogat initially made Geeta Phogat and Babita, tired after day long training, work out in the evening. It left the girls exhausted at the camp and led to a confrontation between Sondhi and Mahavir.
“Mahavir is an old-school thinker. For him, the more intense the workout, the more strength you gain, and the level of strength ultimately decided how you did on the mat. But modern wrestling has evolved into a blend of technique and strength,” the book quotes Sondhi as saying.
“Finally, to stop him from imposing his school of thought on his daughters, we decided to ban him for entering the hall during the session and even made it a point to lock the hall afterwards.”
“While we salute Mahavir for what he has done for the sport and for the society, we could not let him run things his way for the good of the girls. That’s why he was banned from entering the camp. Fortunately, he didn’t resist our move and later even understood my point,” says Sondhi.
Mahavir switched tack and started putting his daughters through rigorous physical exercises before dawn. Geeta and Babita themselves looked for an escape route from the ‘torture’, switching off their mobiles to prevent their father from summoning them out of the camp hostel.
“One-and-a-half hours of physical exercise with our father amounts to a lot,” explains Geeta Phogat in the book.
“He would always get to the training grounds before us, so we would begin our sessions as soon as we go there… We would feel drained at times, but we still gave our 100 per cent at the camp so that our coaches would not give us low scores. But, somehow, the coaches found out about our pre-training schedule and they began to discourage us from going.”
Mahavir Phogat acknowledges Sondhi’s contribution.
“Sondhi is a good coach and I had interacted with him number of times during the national camp for the 2010 CWG. I have a good relation with him.”
But Mahavir is still unhappy he was kept out of the Patiala camp. “That issue was different,” he says.
Razing their hair: the Phogat sisters lose theirs
(HT Photo/Keshav Singh)
(HT Photo/Keshav Singh)
Saurabh Duggal is the authoritative biographer of the Phogat family
For ‘Dangal’ fame Phogat sisters --- Geeta, Babita, Ritu, Sangeeta, Vinesh and Priyanaka --- sporting long hair was the biggest luxury.
The close-knit family only wished they had the luxury to sport long hair.
Like any other teenage girl, the Phogat sisters too fancied long hair, but Geeta’s father, Mahavir Singh Phogat, was a hard taskmaster.
Ever since he introduced the girls to the gruelling sport of wrestling, rules were meant to be followed stringently --- no deviation, no digression.
And his six trainees had no option but to follow them. The rules were not just for Mahavir’s daughters Geeta, Babita, Ritu and Sangeeta, but also for Vinesh and Priyanka, his deceased brother, Rajpal’s, daughters.
“Be it the wrestling arena or elsewhere, indiscipline was never tolerated,” says Vinesh, whose determined run in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games was stopped by a freak knee injury. Since entering her teens, Vinesh wanted to have long hair and it was only last year that she was ‘authorised’ to cherish her childhood dream, reveals ‘Akhada’, the authorised biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat, penned by this HT correspondent.
“In 2015, we were at a camp for five months away from Tauji’s (Mahavir) prying eyes. There I realised my dream. But, once when it was time to return home, I knew what was going to happen,” says the book.
“(However), to my surprise, as we resumed training, he didn’t say a word. Two or three sessions passed and still he didn’t say anything. But at the back of my mind, I knew this silence was calm before the storm.
“On the third day, during the evening session, he finally asked me and I froze. But, to my surprise, he did not say a word. He just asked. I could finally keep my long hair,”’ Vinesh says in the book, ‘Akhada’.
Except for Geeta, who being the senior-most and an acclaimed name in the sport, was the only one who got the permission to sport hair. The luxury was never accorded to the sisters.
As Vinesh recollected, “Tauji’s (Mahavir) instructions were carved in stone when it came to wrestling, and I knew I had to say goodbye to my long hair. I went in for a haircut the very same day, though very reluctantly.
“I could no longer whip my gorgeous hair back and forth. It had taken me months to grow it, something I had wanted to do since I was a teenager, and it took the hairdresser only a few minutes to trim it.”
A unique sacrifice, but one which earned the girls global recognition.
The Phogats that Dangal omitted
Just before Dangal’s end credits started rolling the audience was briefly apprised of Babita Phogat’s career, which, they realised, had been no less illustrious than Geeta’s. The almost unanimous reaction among the audience was that the film had been unfair to Babita.
Manoj Kaushik, in his article, दंगल में नहीं दिखाई गईं फोगाट परिवार की ये बेटियां, गीता-बबिता से नहीं हैं कम, published in Dainik Bhaskar on Dec 28, 2016, tells us about other Phogats whom the film overlooked:
The Phogats have four daughters, but the film has merely shown Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat.
Mahavir Phogat’s third daughter Ritu Phogat has not been shown. Ritu is a Pro Wrestling League Wrestler and is also the most expensive player. Jaipur ‘purchased’ her for Rs.36 lakh in the Pro Wrestling League. She was the (senior) National Champion in 2015 and 2016, and won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Championship in 2016.
The youngest daughter Sangeeta Phogat has also not been shown in the film.
The film does not mention Mahavir’s son. Dushyant Phogat was born in 2003, and this son of Mahavir Phogat is not mentioned anywhere in the film.
The film does show Mahavir Phogat's brother’s son Omkar.
Vinesh Phogat and her mother are not in the film. Since her father's death she has been staying with Phogat Mahavir.
Vinesh took part in the Rio Olympics.
Priyanka Phogat, the daughter of another brother of Mahavir, is also a wrestler. There is no mention of her in the film. Since 2015 she has been participating in Pro Wrestling.
