Presenting: The new pin-up boys of Indian badminton

Indian Badminton has never been hotter. Never before did five Hyderabadis feature in the Top 50 world rankings of men’s badminton. And never did they look so good. In a cricket-crazy country, where the Virat Kohlis and Shikar Dhawans are idolised, these city boys are blazing a trail of their own and winning laurels for the country all over the globe, giving sport lovers a reason to look beyond cricket.While badminton still has a long way to go when it comes to catching up with cricket as far as glamour stakes are concerned, these boys have enough sex appeal to hold their own, both on and off the court, and may be, nudge you to look beyond the men in blue.
Presenting, the new pin-up boys of Indian badminton — Parupalli Kashyap, Prannoy HS, Sai Praneeth, Srikanth Kidambi and RMV Gurusaidutt. They are suave, they are sexy and they are all under 28. And when they are not busy winning titles or climbing the international ranking ladder, they are sweeping the ladies off their feet with their charming ways, impish smile, ready wit, and funny pranks. watching them sweat it out on the court, overhearing their locker room jokes or catching them unwind, it’s obvious they are droolworthy. And that’s what Hyderabad Times tried to capture in this exclusive photoshoot. the boys were game — for everything from taking their shirts off (pictures inside) to posing for the shutterbug, working their inner Greek Gods.
“I know I am handsome,” says Kashyap, as he slips on a blazer and checks himself out in the mirror, getting ready for the shoot at the Pullela Gopichand Academy. As his colleagues join him in the locker room, it’s a riot. “I am gonna take the red one,” says Guru. “Is this okay on me?” asks Prannoy. Once the blazers picked, the styling begins, and each one is particular about getting their look right. “What are you gonna do to my hair?” asks Srikanth, as Kashyap suggests, “Spikes, spikes!” And that’s just the beginning of an hour-long makeover drama filled with gags, guffaws and lots of goofing around.
Forty-five minutes. That’s how long it took the boys to prep up to be photo ready. “How do I look? Does my hair look messy?” asks Guru, to which the make-up artiste replies, “We gave you the Aamir Khan look from Rang De Basanti.’
‘Arreyy! Aamir Khan...!’ chorus the boys, teasing Guru. And he lived up to the new moniker, actually, asking for ‘touch ups’ quite often in between the shoot, as the boys got another reason to tease him further. Not that he cared. “No one has ever told me that I look like Aamir Khan, but now that I have been given this ‘look’, I might as well live it up!” says Guru.
So, is that how he usually deals with things that come his way — particularly, attention? “I don’t know how to answer that one, really. But I am someone who can manage things well. Give me any situation, and I will come out of it. Similarly, I can bring people out of tough situations as well. I am a damn good manager,” he says, as Kashyap interrupts: “What nonsense! Liar! He’s the one who screws up things and gets us into tricky situations!” “Okay, guilty as charged,” says Guru, laughing, “I am just too smart you see. If I can fix a bad situation for you, I can also to get you into a fix.”
All this while, Prannoy is busy picking sunglasses. “I just thought I will try it out. It’ll go well with my beard, don’t you think?” he asks, but the boys convince him otherwise. They step out, donning just jeans and sneakers, and get busy clicking selfies, even as our photographer waits patiently. “These are for ourselves. This is the first time I am going shirtless!” says Prannoy, and the rest chorus, “Me too, me too!”
Not Kashyap, though. “I have posed shirtless before,” he quips. “Everybody tells me, ‘tere ko kya bolna, tu toh dikhta hi achcha hai, bilkul hero jaisa!’ Somebody recently asked me, ‘Why don’t you act? Go to Bollywood’ And I was like, ‘Dude! No, it’s scary! I can’t act’. His ‘hero jaisa’ looks are quite a rage on the badminton circuit. “Whenever I step on court in Indonesia, I see the stadium filled with young girls who keep screaming my name out — ‘Kashyappppp! I love you!’ there are girls who want to click pictures with me and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable also. I am shy, you see.” ‘Liar, liar’ — the boys’ chorus is back. “Let them say whatever, I am shy re,” Kashyap insists.

Prannoy is still checking himself out in the mirror. “Most people compliment me on my beard and my smile... I think the stubble adds a dash of ‘macho’ to my personality. A lot of girls have told me that it looks sexy on me, and I couldn’t agree more.”
‘Go on, go on, we are listening’ the rest of them chime in. “Go on with what? Come on! Even you guys say I look nice with beard, don’t you’ll?” asks Prannoy, turning to the boys, and Kashyap retorts — “Yeh ho kya raha hai? Boys complimenting boys on beard, physique, good looks!” Everybody ROFLs.
“This is interesting,” says Srikanth, breaking his silence. But why is he so quiet? “Well, I think I like to listen more than talk. I am usually the one who you will find sitting quiet even when everyone in the group is talking,” Srikanth says, as he gets ready to go shirtless for the jump portrait. “I was a little uncomfortable taking my shirt off, first time na... I will get better.” Just like how he’s a lot better groomed now, than he was when he shot into the limelight. “I shot to fame from nowhere. And suddenly, I was in the public eye. I am cool with how I am and that I think that is the key to looking good.”
Sai though, never had to try too hard to look good. “everyone I meet, tells me that I have a very cute face, and I love hearing that. Not everyone can be cute and smart, you see,” he quips. So, he is the cute chocolate boy girls like to date? “Not sure about that — especially the chocolatey bit (laughs). But I can strike a conversation with ease, and I am very random. Like for example, if I am sitting in a restaurant and the food is taking time to arrive, I will walk into the kitchen and ask the chef — kya bhaiyya, khana dedo’. And seeing my cute face, nobody takes offence.”
IN BOX:
Prince Charming At 28, P Kashyap is the alpha male of the pack and the quintessential posterboy of Indian badminton. No wonder the girls swoon. Screams of ‘Kashyap, I love you’ fills the court as he plays.
Tall-dark-handsome Prannoy, 23, is machismo personified — see those muscles, that attitude and that mischievous smile. A self-confessed ladies man, Prannoy admits he is “a hit with ladies of all ages”.
Chocolate boy Sai Praneeth, 23, could easily pass off as a Tollywood lover boy with his Ram-meets-Varun Dhawan good looks. While that cute face gets him a lot of attention, it’s his sweet talk that the girls dig, he says.
Nice boy next door Srikanth’s World No. 5 ranking comes with a sex appeal of its own... At 22, he’s the youngest of the lot, yet perhaps, the most sorted. He likes to listen more than talk. Now, which girl wouldn’t like that.
Ultimate prankster The funny man of the group, Gurusaidutt, with his wisecracks and one-liners, is a natural charmer. This 25-year-old takes pride in being able to talk his way out of any situation, or into ladies’ hearts