Virat, Anushka spotlight India's 'Let There Be Sport' drive

Cricket icon Virat Kohli and Indian film actor Anushka Sharma surprised fans in Bengaluru with a badminton face-off to highlight the significance of sports in daily life and bolster India's ongoing revolutionary initiative 'Let There Be Sport', which questions the conventional mindset that sports is a digression from academics.

To encourage individuals to adopt a healthy lifestyle, Virat and Anushka, who have underlined their commitment to fitness over the years, dropped unannounced into a premium residential society in the city and spontaneously teamed up to play a friendly mixed doubles badminton match against two lucky residents from the society. The exciting game was not only filled with fun and competitive banter but also witnessed Virat and Anushka in a never-seen-before avatar, as the two conveyed a powerful message of incorporating sports and fitness into day-to-day lives.

"Sports and fitness must be integrated into our culture, curriculum and everyday lives as a valuable and critical life skill. As a brand, PUMA constantly creates fresh and offbeat ways to connect, engage and inspire audiences in a deeper way. Our event today brought Virat (Kohli) and Anushka (Sharma) and consumers up, close and personal. Virat and Anushka are youth icons and their on-the-spur interactions today will create awareness and encourage people of all ages to take up sports and fitness," Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, PUMA India and Southeast Asia, said.

"As a leading sports brand in the country, it is our responsibility to create a purpose-driven platform such as 'Let There Be Sport' to further the development of sports and fitness culture that India has witnessed in the last 5-10 years. We have received a great response for the initiative so far and we hope to achieve our goal of building a fit India," Ganguly added.

Commenting on the occasion, Virat said, "Sports has to be an integral part of everyone's life. I'm glad that PUMA recognised the need and came forward wholeheartedly to highlight the importance of making it an essential just like other necessities. It was great fun taking time out from our schedules to interact with locals and crashing a meeting at the co-working space to get employees to do fitness challenges. I hope many will be motivated and inspired today and take up sports and fitness as a life skill."

(ANI)