In the middle of 2020, when stadiums across the world stood empty and professional sport had been brought to a standstill by the pandemic, actor Parvin Dabas found himself pitching an idea that was often met with polite smiles rather than serious investment.
He wanted broadcasters, sponsors and investors to back a professional arm-wrestling league in India. Most conversations ended before they truly began. Broadcasters repeatedly asked who would watch two people lock hands across a table for a contest that could end in seconds?
There was little evidence to support his argument. India had no franchise competition, no television audience data and no commercial blueprint for arm wrestling. Yet Dabas believed the opportunity had been hiding in plain sight.
Almost every Indian had played panja at some point in life. In school classrooms, college canteens, military barracks, factories, offices or neighbourhood gatherings. What the country lacked was not familiarity with the sport but a business capable of organising, packaging and monetising it.
That conviction became the foundation of the Pro Panja League. The first person to buy into the idea was his wife and fellow actor Preeti Jhangiani. Through their production company, Swen Entertainment, the couple decided to build India’s first professional arm-wrestling league, betting that a game deeply embedded in Indian culture could evolve into a commercially viable sports property.
Six years later, what began as an idea dismissed by much of the industry has developed into a competition that, according to league estimates, has reached more than 250 million television households, generated over 150 million social media views during its second season and accumulated more than 1.2 billion digital views since its launch.
The league now operates six city-based franchises, has broadcast partnerships with Sony Sports Network and DD Sports, streams on FanCode and has attracted an expanding portfolio of commercial sponsors.
For Dabas and Jhangiani, the challenge was never introducing India to arm wrestling. It was persuading the sports industry that something Indians had played casually for generations could become a professional entertainment product.
“We have athletes from every background,” Dabas told financialexpress.com. “There are chartered accountants, rickshaw drivers, factory workers, fitness trainers, police officers and government employees. That’s why we call it Bharat Ka Khel.”
The league’s ambitions, however, stretch well beyond creating a domestic competition.
“The idea is to grow within India first and then internationally,” he said. “We genuinely believe arm wrestling is an entertaining sport and that there’s enormous room for growth, both here and abroad.”
A game that never needed explaining
Long before television cameras arrived, panja was already woven into everyday Indian life. In school hostels, engineering colleges, police stations, army camps and factory floors, it rarely took more than a sturdy table before two elbows were planted on the surface and a crowd gathered around.
No expensive equipment was required. There were no complicated rules to learn and almost everyone believed they had a realistic chance of winning. That familiarity eventually became Pro Panja League’s biggest commercial advantage.
Unlike emerging sports that first need audiences to understand specialised rules or technical nuances, arm wrestling already enjoyed widespread cultural recognition. The founders were not introducing a new sport; they were attempting to professionalise something millions of Indians instinctively understood.
That thinking influenced the league’s identity from the outset. Rather than relying solely on the international terminology of arm wrestling, the organisers deliberately leaned into the word panja, a term instantly recognisable across much of the country.
Their slogan, Bharat Ka Khel, reinforced the message that this was not an imported sporting concept but one rooted in everyday Indian culture. Recognition alone, however, was never going to build a sustainable sports business.
From neighbourhood pastime to franchise property
Competitive arm wrestling had existed internationally for decades through world championships and continental tournaments. India had talented athletes competing at those events, but the ecosystem lacked a commercial structure capable of creating long-term careers.
The founders turned to a model that Indian sports audiences already understood. Just as the Indian Premier League (IPL) transformed cricket into a year-round entertainment property and the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) reshaped kabaddi’s commercial fortunes, Pro Panja adopted a city-based franchise system designed to attract broadcasters, advertisers and long-term investment.
The competition today consists of six franchises: Kiraak Hyderabad, Jaipur Veers, Rohtak Rowdies, Mumbai Muscle, Sher-e-Ludhiana and MP Hathodas. Each franchise fields competitors across men’s, women’s and specially abled divisions, making inclusivity a core commercial principle rather than a separate initiative.
For the organisers, the franchise structure serves purposes beyond competition. Local identities encourage regional fan loyalty, provide inventory for sponsors and create recurring narratives around teams rather than individual events. More importantly, they give athletes something Indian arm wrestling had rarely offered before- visibility.
Visibility changes careers
For years, many of India’s leading arm wrestlers lived lives familiar to athletes competing outside cricket. National medals brought respect within the sporting community but rarely financial stability.
Most competitors balanced training with full-time employment, working in government offices, gyms, factories or private businesses before returning home to train in the evenings because the sport itself generated little income.
Professional competition has begun to alter that equation. League contracts, televised matches and franchise identities have made athletes more recognisable, creating opportunities that extend beyond appearance fees.
Sponsorships, coaching businesses, gym ownership and social media content have started generating supplementary income for some competitors. Dabas believes Sachin Goyal best illustrates how dramatically that landscape has shifted.
“He went from around 1,000 to 1,500 followers in 2020 to nearly 3.5 million followers across platforms today,” Dabas said. “He’s now a full-time influencer alongside being an athlete and works with multiple brands.”
For Goyal, the transformation has extended far beyond follower counts. “Pro Panja League changed my life,” he tells financialexpress.com. “Earlier, people didn’t take arm wrestling very seriously, but after the league people started recognising me.”
“My fan following increased and so did the opportunities. I started working with brands and that motivated me to perform even better in the sport.”
The exposure has also reshaped his professional routine. “My daily life now revolves around training, competitions, creating content on social media and brand shoots,” Goyal said.
“Today, an athlete has to perform well but also stay connected with the audience. Both go hand in hand.”
He recalls hearing about the league for the first time with genuine excitement.
“It finally felt like arm wrestling was getting the platform players had been waiting for. The league gave athletes exposure and inspired younger players to see the sport as a career.”
Today, he says, many supporters recognise him by his nickname, Biceps King, something he attributes directly to the visibility generated by Pro Panja League.
“When people watch me on television and my family sees me competing on that stage, the happiness and pride on their faces means more than any medal. That feeling is very special.”
Dabas argues that Goyal’s story reflects a wider trend rather than an isolated success.
At the same time, he remains realistic about the economics of the sport.
“Not every arm wrestler can make a full-time living only through arm wrestling yet,” he said.
“But we’ve been helping athletes understand that the opportunities around the sport are equally important. Many have opened gyms, become influencers or started monetising YouTube. That’s where a large part of their income can come from.”
He believes that mirrors the financial structure seen across many established sports.
“In most sports, only about 15 to 20 per cent of an athlete’s income comes directly from competition. The rest comes because people know who you are. We’ve been teaching our athletes how to build those opportunities alongside their sporting careers.”
Building a business, not just a tournament
Audience growth is only one part of the equation. Like every professional league, Pro Panja’s long-term success will ultimately depend on building reliable revenue streams that extend beyond a single season. Prize money was among the league’s earliest signals of intent.
The inaugural champions received ₹20 lakh, while the runners-up earned Rs 5 lakh. The same structure was retained for the second season, with an overall prize pool of Rs 2.5 crore.
Dabas says player earnings have increased over time, although the league has not publicly disclosed contract values. Rather than presenting league payments as the sole source of athlete income, he views them as one element of a wider commercial ecosystem.
Instead of depending exclusively on ticket revenue, Pro Panja’s model combines broadcast rights, digital streaming, sponsorships, licensing, merchandise and franchise partnerships.
Suniel Shetty’s vote of confidence
Every emerging sports league reaches a point where it must convince more than fans. It has to persuade investors that the sport can become a sustainable business.
For Pro Panja League, that endorsement arrived when actor and entrepreneur Suniel Shetty acquired a minority stake in Panja Sports, the company that owns and operates the competition.
The investment came while the league was still establishing itself, providing more than additional capital. It signalled to the wider sports and entertainment industry that Pro Panja was being viewed as a long-term sports business rather than a novelty project.
Reports at the time suggested Shetty’s holding would remain in the single digits, while Panja Sports planned to invest around Rs 20 crore during its early expansion phase.
Confirming the investment, Shetty told SportsMint.
“I am on board with Pro Panja League as an equity partner at the group level. My shareholding will be in the single digits.”
For a young league seeking franchise owners, sponsors and commercial partners, having a recognised entrepreneur on its cap table added an additional layer of credibility.
The architect behind the broadcast revolution
While Dabas has become the public face of Pro Panja League, those within Indian arm wrestling often point to Preeti Jhangiani as the executive who helped transform the sport from a federation activity into a broadcast product.
Jhangiani serves as Co-Founder of the league, President of the People’s Armwrestling Federation India (PAFI) and Vice-President of the Asian Armwrestling Federation.
Her responsibilities have extended well beyond promotion. Drawing on more than two decades in the entertainment industry, she helped shape how the sport would be presented to television audiences.
Production values, athlete storytelling, presentation formats and broadcast packaging all became central to the league’s strategy, recognising that viewers needed personalities to connect with rather than simply contests to watch.
She also pushed for one of the league’s defining policies from its inception, equal prize money across men’s, women’s and differently-abled categories.
Rather than treating women’s and para-arm wrestling as parallel competitions, the league integrated them into the main event with identical financial rewards.
That approach earned industry recognition when Jhangiani received the Sports Business Leader of the Year (Female) honour at the third Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Sports Business Awards.
For the founders, storytelling has become almost as important as competition itself. Sport naturally creates heroes but audiences rarely connect with athletes unless they understand the people behind the performances.
Through documentaries, digital features, interviews and year-round social media content, the league has tried to keep its athletes visible beyond match days, borrowing more from entertainment marketing than traditional sports administration.
Thinking beyond India
Ask Dabas about the future and the conversation quickly shifts beyond television ratings or sponsorship revenue. “We see ourselves becoming a global sports property,” he said.
“That is the ultimate vision to build something in arm wrestling that becomes the best league in the world. We want it to be a made-in-India property.”
That ambition places Pro Panja alongside established competitions such as the World Armwrestling League (WAL) in the United States, which helped popularise professional arm wrestling through television broadcasts during the 2010s and produced several internationally recognised athletes.
However, the two organisations have evolved differently. WAL has traditionally focused on elite competition and international athletes, whereas Pro Panja has positioned itself as a franchise-based league built around city identities, grassroots participation and domestic talent development.
The Indian league also integrates men’s, women’s and differently-abled categories within a single commercial structure while placing significant emphasis on regional fan engagement and digital-first storytelling.
Dabas believes there remains space for multiple successful leagues globally. India’s recent performances have reinforced that belief.
The country finished runners-up at last year’s Asian Championships, its highest-ever finish at the continental event and will host the World Championships later this year.
“We have very high hopes for this World Championships,” Dabas said.
“Our aim is to finish in the top ten this year and over the next five years we want India to consistently be among the world’s top three nations.”
More than entertainment
For Dabas, success will not ultimately be measured by television ratings or social media impressions. Those numbers matter because they attract sponsors, broadcasters and investors, but they remain milestones rather than the destination.
The larger objective is to leave behind an organised sporting ecosystem that can continue growing long after the novelty of a new league fades. That means creating sustainable careers for athletes, developing coaching pathways, strengthening domestic competitions and ensuring arm wrestling becomes a viable profession rather than a passion pursued after office hours.
In many ways, Pro Panja’s journey mirrors that of several Indian sports that eventually found mainstream audiences.
Kabaddi transformed from a largely rural pastime into a commercially successful league through the Pro Kabaddi League. Kho Kho has recently attempted a similar transition. Arm wrestling is now attempting to follow that trajectory, albeit with its own unique challenges.
Whether it succeeds will depend on more than audience numbers. Like every emerging sports property, it must continue attracting sponsors, retaining franchise owners, building loyal fan communities and convincing athletes that the sport can offer long-term careers.
Those remain difficult problems with no guaranteed solutions. Yet one achievement is already difficult to dispute.
A sport once confined to the backyard now boasts city franchises, national television coverage, streaming partnerships and athletes building careers that extend beyond the competition table.
For Indian sport, that may prove to be Pro Panja League’s most significant victory.