Virat and Anushka's badminton face-off

Cricket icon Virat Kohli and Indian film actor Anushka Sharma on Monday 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."

It all started with Virat and Anushka visiting a co-working space and taking employees, who were engrossed in their daily hustle, by surprise. They interacted with the employees and explained the benefits of prioritising physical activity in everyday life before engaging them in fun fitness challenges.

The 'Let There Be Sport' campaign was the need of the hour. There should be equal importance given to sports in schools and colleges because pursuing sports at a young age will keep you fit in the longer run. It was wonderful taking up these fitness challenges and interacting with the people of Bengaluru where I have spent a significant amount of my growing years. I also thoroughly enjoyed playing a spontaneous badminton match with Virat and the residents today," Anushka commented.

Recently, Virat took part in 'Let There Be Sport' Conclave along with ace footballer Sunil Chhetri as the duo spoke about the need for sports and fitness in the country while sharing inspirational stories from their respective journeys. The conclave had also streamed the latest 90-second digital film which features its brand ambassadors Virat, MC Mary Kom, Sunil, Avani Lekhara and Bhagwani Devi alongside everyday athletes.