Gladiator in the ring: Indian style

Ten minutes before his opponent in the well-lit ring drew blood from his face, 28-year-old Prince Aadvanshi insisted his name be written down as Prince: The King of Aggression. "I might be a good-natured guy outside, but inside the ring, I let out my aggression," he explained.

Despite a bloodied face, the former model and theatre enthusiast did not hold in his energy. Pummelling the burly guy pitted against him with fists and a table kept nearby till he passed out, Prince had the last laugh.
If you were thinking Prince appeared to be straight out of the hugely popular World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), you'd be right. Almost. With scripted fights and broken bones, Prince and a motley group of friends are trying to build an Indian version of the wildly popular wrestling series.

Named Freak Fighters Wrestling (FFW), it is an initiative of Sachin Aadvanshi, Aamit Khanna and Manish Kumar. "I first met them as a journalist and since then have been helping them shape up things. The players come from diverse backgrounds. One of them is an accountant, while another is an ATM guard. They are unified by their passion to perform on the ring," says Aamit Khanna. Manish is also a FFW wrestler and wears a mask.

In its fourth year now, the Freak fighters comprise 16 men; this year, the group opened doors for women too. Named Daring Divas, the four women, Anupama Prakash, Anuradha Kaushik, Tina Victor and Ritu Yadav, who performed onstage along with the boys for the first time, punched, kicked and fought with as much fervour at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium.

Yadav, a gold medal-winning karate champion, teaches self defence to women working in banks and telecom companies. "With everyday news of violence against women, I took up wrestling to explore ways of self-defence. Karate is theoretically solid, but does not help you confront an attacker on the streets; you are vulnerable. Freestyle wrestling allows you room to escape because of the instant shock value," says Yadav, who runs a karate training institute in Gurgaon.

Lucknow girl Prakash, 23, is a petite model, actor and fitness expert, and looks an unlikely fighter. "I joined to tear down notions of women not being able to hold their own inside the ring," she says. Kaushik, 27, a national level karate champion, who also teaches self-defence to women, is one of the quickest on the stage, and in the course of the match threw a man twice her size. Victor, 26, a school-level kickboxing player, is well-known for her quick moves.

Bringing girls into the arena was an idea put forward by two 19-year-old twins from Lady Shri Ram College who were interning with FFW. "We thought it would be a great idea to have the girls fight it out inside the ring," says Noopur Sharma, who along with her sister Payal, manages the diets of the girls, their fitness and their schedules.
The players have cultivated onstage personas to whip up interest. "Jeet, known as the Big Bully, had to discontinue his education because of bullying in his school, and is currently working on a project to combat bullying," says Khanna. He adds that Jeet, with his 125-inch chest, boasts perhaps the biggest chest in Asia.

Despite the scripts, when they fall, they fall hard. During a moment in the match, 28-year-old Veer, who works as an accountant, broke his arm. Lying on the floor, in visible pain, he kept a straight face, dispelling any fears of serious injury. "What are you saying? I just need to rest for a day; I will come back for the next fight," says the fighter.

The loud cheers from the crowd gathered at the stadium made it quite evident that the gladiatorial sport had its many fans. Most of the crowd seemed to be school-children, apart from the odd accompanying parent. But there were also people like 53-year-old Arun Nagi. "I followed WWE quite keenly, and I'm happy we have our own heroes here."

Finances are a bit dry at the moment, but the organisers are sure that they will bag corporate sponsors soon. The group trains in Bawana for a month before the season's fights. Training a wrestler sets them back by almost Rs1,200 per day. "The stage comes for a minimum of Rs8-12 lakhs. And we pull in our own resources to keep the show going," says Aamit Khanna.

FFW will soon have an eight-episode series that will be aired in September on DD Sports. The group, which travels to Dehradun and Chandigarh next, has 12 shows lined up for this year.