Tollywood Thunders clinches first ever Celebrity Badminton League title

In the recent times, badminton sport had become a big buzz that it did provoke the movie celebrities of South India. It is really a moment to celebrate how the sport has been emerging day by day and bringing every other culture onto the court. So far we have seen movie celebrities as cricket players off the screen. This time, they are seen as badminton a player which is good opportunity for them to exhibit their badminton abilities.

As part of CBL season 1, four celebrity teams had represented Kollywood, Mollywood, Sandalwood and Tollywood each. The gleaming launch function created a noise with all the team owners and film stars being participated with great enthusiasm except karnataka team members alone were introduced video conferencing.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Hemachandran, Founder & CEO of CBL said, “CBL in its first season has been able to garner support from the top four South Indian cine personalities, proving that badminton is one of the most loved sports across the world. Our ambition is to ensure that we will have a team from Bollywood and in future from even Hollywood participating in the next few CBL seasons.”

The owners and team members for this season were:

Tollywood Thunders:

Team owners:

Nandiniy Vijay, runs her animation college in Chennai called GIGA (Global Institute of Gaming and Animation) and also has produced many tele-commercials. Mr. Sagar Pentela, entrepreneur graduated from Victoria university in International Business (New Zealand). Dr Dheeraj, is one of the youngest cardiothoracic surgeons in India. He finished MBBS, Ms and Mch in Sri Ramachandra University Chennai. He is currently practicing at Apollo hospitals, Chennai.

Team members:

● Naga Chaitanya – Brand Ambassador

● Lakshmi Manchu – Team Motivator

● Sudheer Babu – Captain

● Tarun Kumar – Vice Captain

● Charmy Kaur - Team Supporter

● Nikhil

● Kaushal Manda

● Anil

● Krishna Chaitanya

● Sathya Dev

● Naveen

● Tejasvi Madivada

● Sanjana Galrani

● Apoorva Srinivasan

CHENNAI ROCKERS:

Team Owners:

Mr. C. R. Venkatesh is the Managing Director and Chief Execuve Officer of Dot Com Infoway, Adatha, Gmasa And Galata Media.

Team members:

• Madhavan – Brand Ambassador

• Arya – Team Captain

• Amala paul – Team Motivator

• Bharath

• Vaibhav

• Amitash

• Prasanna

• Munna Simon

• Shanthnu

• Ineya

• Gayathri

• Rupa Manjari

• Suja Varunee

• Abhinay Vaddi

KERALA ROYALS:

Team Owner:

Mr. Ranjith Karunakaran is the Chairman of EAK group of companies and has been associated with various other business enterprises like hospitality and steel export.

Team members:

• Mamta Mohandas – Brand Ambassador

• Jayaram – Team Captain

• Narain – Vice Captain

• Pearlemaaney – Team Motivator

• Baiju

• Arjun Nandakumar

• Saiju Kurup

• Sekhar Menon

• Rajeev Pillai

• Sreenath Bhasi

• Rony David

• Ranjini Haridas

• Parvathi Nambiar

• Rosin Jolly

KARNATAKA ALPS

Team Owner:

Mr. Justin is the founder of Alpha Digitech and an advisory member in the Board of Directors of GMASA and Mobilogi, a Malaysian company. Ms. Sanghavi is an Indian film actress and model, known for her works in Tamil cinema, Kannada cinema, and Telugu cinema. She has starred in over 95 feature films in a span of 22 years.

Team members:

• Puneeth Rajkumar – Brand Ambassador

• Aindrita – Team Movatitor

• Diganth – Captain

• Yogesh

• Indrajit Lankesh

• Prajwal Devaraj

• Ravi Chetan

• Jagadish C.

• Arjun U. A.

• Karthik C. S.

• Kavitha Lankesh

• Krishi Tapanda

• Disha Pooviah

• Abanka Deka

Finals took place in November in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tollywood Thunders beat Kerala Royals to emerge as the victors in a tightly contested final. Team Karnataka Alps was placed third while Team Chennai Rockers took the last position.

Mr. Hemachandran, Founder and CEO, Celebrity Badminton League commenting on the finals played at Kuala Lumpur said, "The involvement, excitement and professionalism exhibited by the celebrities, our partners and our team, has given us an overwhelming brand mileage and extraordinary reception by the public. In spite of their busy schedule, all the celebrities practiced very hard to compete in a team format with each other and put up a wonderful show for the audience in Malaysia. I would like to congratulate and thank all the team owners and team captains who have made this league a huge success.

Our next season promises to be much bigger and more exciting, with the Bollywood industry showing interest to join our elite league." The team positions before the finals were based on points accumulated from the initial league matches at Kochi and Hyderabad were as follows: Kerala Royals were ranked first, followed by Tollywood Thunders, Karnataka Alps and finally Chennai Rockers.

In the finals, 1^st match was between Tollywood Thunder and Karnataka Alps. Men doubles 1 of Tollywood Thunders initially let go to Karnataka Alps but men doubles 2 and 3, Women doubles and mixed doubles took the lead in all the games qualifying for the next match.

2nd match took place between Chennai Rockers and Kerala Royals. Except the Men Doubles 2, Kerala Royals thrashed Chennai Rockers in all the matches.

In the third game Chennai Rockers outplayed by Karnataka Alps and took the third position.

In the 4th match, Tollywood took the lead in all the games against Kerala Royals and smashed the game winning CBL 1 title.

The Celebrity Badminton League (CBL) brought together the entire South Indian film industry in its very first season and has all indications of becoming a national league by the next edition. The finals held in Kuala Lumpur was a huge success given the popularity of Southern cinema in Malaysia. CBL has integrated Sport and entertainment in the right mix to enthrall an audience who love to see their celebrities in flesh and blood competing against one another in right earnest.