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Prakash Padukone a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin (born June 10, 1955) is a badminton player from Karnataka, India, who was awarded the Padma Sri in 1982. Prakash was initiated into the game at a tender age by his father Ramesh Padukone, who was the Secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association for many years.
Padukone's first official tournament was the Karnataka state junior championship in 1962. Though he lost in the very first round, two years later he managed to win the state junior title. He changed his playing style into a more aggressive style in 1971, and won the Indian national junior title in 1972. He also won the senior title the same year. He won the Indian national title consecutively for the next seven years, until 1979. In 1978, he won his first major international title, the men's singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada. In 1979, he won the Evening of Champions at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
In 1980, he won the Danish Open, the Swedish Open and became the first Indian to win the coveted men's singles title at the All England Championship with a victory over Indonesian rival Liem Swie King. He spent much of his international career training in Denmark, and developed close friendships with European players such as Morten Frost. Prakash currently lives in Bangalore with wife Ujjala and two daughters, and runs the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982.
After his retirement in 1991, he was the chairman of the Badminton Association of India for a short while. He was the coach of the Indian national badminton team in 1993 and 1996. He recently had his biography released at the 2006 nationals. The book, Touchplay, is written by Dev Sukumar.
Prakash met Liem Swie King, the reigning champion in the finals of the All England Open and beat him in straight games. "I’ve done it!" cried Prakash, and all hell broke lose. A new King had been crowned! A teetotaller, he took a sip of the champagne that was making the rounds, but not before diluting it with apple juice. When the Indian team coach asked the women members of the team to kiss Prakash, they just blushed. The usually bashful Prakash however saved them the embarrassment by pecking each of them on their cheeks!
Post-retirement, Prakash was the chairman of the Badminton Association of India for a short while and later coached of the Indian national badminton team in 1993 and 1996.
Prakash is also the father of model turned actress, Deepika Padukone and Anisha Padukone whose aim is to become a golfer.