At the opening of our Mapping Cultures Exhibition, Navroze Contractor, our Chief Guest from Bangalore honoured eighteen coaches of local akhadas in Kota - seventeen men and one woman.

We were also able to track down three national level kushti women players, two of whom had recently appeared in the popular Amir Khan film 'Dangal'. Rekha Rathor, who won silver in 2005 in Japan in the Asian Championships has been named 'Woman of the Year' in the sports category by the newspaper Dainik Bhaskar. She now coaches children for free as she received free coaching herself from the age of 7 from an ustaad.

In the photograph below Rekha is in the middle. Navroze is holding a still from the film 'Dangal' in which Sweety (on the left) and Rinky (on the right) appear on the podium with the star of the film.

Kota Kushti Girls