Taking charge of her sporty lineage, actor Deepika Padukone will now be seen in a motivational campaign for London Olympics next year. The actor, who recently shot the campaign, says that it “aims to encourage our nation to support all the athletes” for the sporting extravaganza.

Confirming the news, Deepika says, “I finished shooting the promotional campaign for the Olympics. It’s meant to motivate all our athletes—not from  any particular sport.” The actor’s campaign has come through in collaboration with Sports Development Corporation.

Deepika, who is badminton legend Prakash Padukone’s daughter, has played the sport at state level. “I think the media will also help a lot in supporting and motivating Indian athletes. That’s what our sportsmen need right now,” she feels.

Ask the actor if she plans to attend the Olympic events next year, and she says: “I want to go for it. But I haven’t seen the event itinerary yet. So, I don’t know what’s happening when. But I would love to go and watch some of our athletes perform.”

Not many know that Deepika is also a board member of the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), an organisation that is dedicated to training Indian athletes for the prestigious competition next year. “A lot of our athletes are training at the moment for the Olympics. The build-up is very exciting as we are nearing the event,” she says.

Talking about sports and athletes, Deepika’s father has openly supported the contentious Sports Bill along with some other sportsmen. Ask the actor what she stands for and she’s quick to support what is best for the country and its sportsmen.

“I don’t know the details of the bill, but people who are a part of it, including my father, have achieved a lot for our country in their respective fields. They are all highly respectable sportsmen, who obviously want the best for Indian sports and our country. So, I would definitely support it,” says the Love Aaj Kal (2009) actor, who is also the face of the Force India F1 Team.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Tabloid / by Prashant Singh / Hindustan Times, Mumbai / December 20th, 2011

They stood facing each other, shuffling from side to side like prize fighters sizing up what lay ahead. The younger man, shorter and of a slighter frame, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, sparing with words, and Indian cricket’s stickiest commuter Rahul Dravid, who listened more than he smiled, waited rather than waded, held court on the strikes and strokes that make up the sporting universe.

Bindra, 29, who made history in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, recounted his obsessive journey to greatness in a book ‘A Shot At History’, which Dravid launched before a glittering audience that included bowling great Anil Kumble, sprint queen Ashwini Nachappa, basketballers Nandini Basappa and Jayawanthi Shyam and swim star Nisha Millet. Dravid, slow batsman, sharp with words, said of Bindra’s historic effort, “He gave us one of those I-was-there, it-happened-during-my-lifetime moments.”

The evening, an education on the pursuit of sporting excellence, saw the iconic stars attempt to define that moment in time athletes like to call ‘the zone’. A smiling Bindra called it ‘fantasy’. “For me,” he said, “it is all about being in the present. When you are able to sustain that focus over a period of time.”

Dravid said, “Whenever great athletes meet, this (the zone) topic always comes up for discussion, you want to know if the other guy has been there, experienced it, you feed off each other. When Abhinav and I met earlier, we discussed it. Like he said, it is about being in the present, when you don’t have one eye on the score or the pitch or what’s coming at you. I’ve been fortunate to have glimpsed and tasted it in my career.”

For Bindra, whose sport is about attaining a stillness of state and spirit, said that while perfection was the goal, it’s also about what you are able to sum up on an imperfect day. “You have to have a Plan B and then it’s about how you make it work.”

Dravid said, “It’s not about how you do on a good day because you will do well, but how you come through when you are struggling. When things are not going your way and you’re wondering what you’re doing out there embarrassing yourself, but you stick around and make a 100. There’s great satisfaction in that.”

Bindra’s ‘A Shot At History’ is a stirring narration of the journey of an Olympic athlete. The autobiography written with sportswriter Rohit Brijnath, grabs the attention of the reader as much with the voice as with the words that make up the 200-odd pages of the book which takes on the tone of a conversation. It’s as if the champion shooter is narrating his story to you at a neighbourhood cafe. From the moment he wakes up, battling his mind on a winter morning in Chandigarh, to the final pages of the book, where he tells you that he’s ‘learning to suffer again’, readying himself for the 2012 test, you’ve probably downed many mugs of coffee, run through several tissues and finally thumped the table in triumph.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / by Prajwal Hegde / TNN / Home> City> Bangalore / November 01st, 2011