Dangal inspires Chinese athletes

Medallists don’t grow on trees... you have to nurture them... with love, with hard work, with dedication, says Aamir Khan, playing the role of Mahavir Phogat, in Dangal.

The message from the movie has crossed boundaries, as has been reported widely, with even China embracing it with all their hearts.

Even as the relationship between India and that nation continues to be on the colder side, the movie is working wonders, even in the Chinese sporting world. It has broken the language barrier and is being used by the Chinese sports officials to motivate their teams. “It is a wonderful movie, we all enjoyed it,” says Jun He, China’s team manager at the Asian Athletics Championships. “The name of the movie in Chinese can be roughly translated as ‘Wrestler Dad’,” he said.

A special screening of the movie was held for the Chinese team for the Asian Championships so as to inspire them to reach greater heights. “It is very inspirational. It shows how the two girls overcome difficulties through their own efforts and rise in sport through sheer hard work,” says Jun. “The language is not a problem as we had subtitles in Chinese and English,” he adds.

“The athletes were shown the movie and they were asked to write down the message they received from it. They said they found it highly motivational. Whenever such movies come up, we make it a point to screen it for our athletes,” he said.