Trama

The story of Saina Nehwal, a professional badminton player who ranked number 1 in the sport.

Champion. Olympic Medallist. The Doyen of Indian Badminton. Saina Nehwal is all of this and much more. This biopic chronicles the inspiring story of a gifted youngster's ascendance to the pinnacle of the Badminton World through sheer passion and perseverance.

Saina Nehwal (Parineeti Chopra) is daughter of Usha Rani (Meghna Malik) and Harvir Singh (Subhrajyoti Barat). She wins 2 golds at the CWG games in Australia 2018. Nilesh Kulkarni is the Founder of the IISM (International Institute of Sports Management) and manages Saina.

Saina recounts in a press conference how her preggers mother used to play Badminton. She loved to win and was arrogant as hell. When Saina is a little girl, she insists that she be enrolled in a badminton academy, which was 25 Kms away, in their city of Hyderabad. The academy is full and they refuse admission to Saina, but Usha Rani wont admit defeat and asks Saina to pick up a racket and get into the court. The coaches of the academy notice Saina and tell Usha to bring her for regular coaching classes. Parupalli Kashyap (Eshan Naqvi), Damodar (Sharrman Dey) & ROhan (Sameer Bassi) are Saina's sparring partners from the beginning. Her dad drives her to the academy (At Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium or LBS) every morning for classes that start at 5 am. Right from academy, Saina attends school.

Usha enter Saina (age 8) in the district level competition for girls in 1998. She wins Gold at the under 10 & under 13 singles & doubles. At the national event, Saina comes 2nd and Usha slaps her very hard. 10 shuttles cost rs 3000 and her father Harvir begs and borrows (from his PF) to fund Saina's badminton career. He also kept a scrap book of all of Saina's newspaper articles. Saina grows up and reaches the Junior National finals. After a tough match she beats 3 times National Champion Shehnaz Rizvi. Saina is overweight at this point.

Saina is selected to represent India Prague. But Usha has an accident and gets a serious head injury. She spends 6.5 hrs in surgery. Saina continues her practice despite all of this. In 2003, Saina heads to Prague for the Junior world championship. Saina wins, and Usha survives. Kashyap gives a red rose to Saina. Coach Sarvadhamaan Rajan (Manav Kaul) comes to Hyderabad. Saina's current coach encourages her to join Rajan's academy if she wants to be a world champ.

Rajan fixates on Saina's diet and asks her to lose 10 Kgs. He stops her Paranthas, milk, curds and ice creams and puts her on a strict diet regime. Then comes agility training to add to Saina's strength. She loses 10.2 Kgs in 48 days. Saina pushes Rajan to send her to the Philippines open in the senior category in 2006. The tournament is attended by all the world's top players and Rajan doesn't think Saina will go beyond the 2nd round. But he agrees to send her. Saina reaches the final defying all expectations. At the final, she gets a tough fight against her Malaysian opponent, who had read her natural game. Saina changes tactics and wins the match and the tournament. Rajan is proud that Saina beat his expectations and allows her to bask in the limelight.

Kashyap's romantic feelings for Saina grow. Rajan feels Kashyap is a distraction in Saina's march to the top of the world rankings. Rajan speaks to Saina and tells her that she needs to sacrifice her relationship with Kashyap to attain the world no 1 status. Saina dumps Kashyap and wins the world junior championship in 2008. She wins the CWG gold in Delhi in 2010 and the Olympic bronze in 2012. Saina becomes a celebrity. She gets many endorsements and earns money and moves her family into a huge house. She starts missing practice due to her endorsement commitments. Rajan is angry and ignores Saina. He tells Saina that she is aiming too low .. Saina starts losing on court. She slips on court and injures her ankle. She goes into rehab for 2 months. Rajan doesn't visit Saina in hospital and after 2 months Kashyap asks Saina to patch things up with Rajan

Rajan tells her that he has invested 25000+ hrs of practice into Saina and failed to make her world no 1. So, maybe he failed. Saina decides to leave Rajan and his academy. Usha takes control of the situation and Nehwal's shift to Bangalore. Coach Jeewan Kumar (Ankur Vikal) becomes her coach and tells her that she is the icon for young girls in India and whatever she does from this point on will inspire all young women all over the country. Kashyap joins Saina in training. Saina slowly gets back to international tournaments. She wins China Open in 2014. In Dec 2014, she is world no 2 again.

Saina plays Carolina Marin (Spanish) for the world no 1 ranking. Marin is a fierce competitor who unsettles her opponents and their rhythms. Marin takes the first game, but Saina defeats Carolina in the 2nd. In the 3rd, Marin ups the decibels and screams at every point she wins, unsettling Saina. Soon, Marin is up 5-1. Saina gives it back to Marin and soon starts pulling the scores back. But Marin starts pulling away again and soon it is 13-9 to Marin. The crowd backs Saina, as the match is in India. Saina unleashes her lethal smashes to put Marin on the back foot. 23-23 in the deciding set. The match exhausts both players. Saina remembers the billion eyes on her and digs deep and wins the match. She is world number 1 on 2nd April 2015. She returned to Rajan in 2017 and won more titles. She marries Kashyap in 2018.