If you anticipated the typical display of corporate logos and rigid panels at SPORTS CON Pune 2025, you were pleasantly surprised. Held at the historic PYC Hindu Gymkhana, this wasn’t your average event. No one was here to hand out polished brochures or talk about things that sounded nice on paper. This was about action, urgency, and a whole lot of raw truth.

The first speaker to step up wasn’t some celebrity, polished in a designer suit, but rather Dr. Vipul Lunawat, a man whose eyes had seen enough of India’s sports eco-system to make you question whether we were stuck in a time loop of broken promises. This wasn’t about hope or fluff; it was a hard dose of reality. His message: India’s sports system is crumbling. His words cut through the optimism like a knife, and you could feel the room brace for what was coming next.

But Dr. Lunawat wasn’t alone. Madhukar Talwalkar, the fitness guru known for reshaping the health landscape in India, stood beside him. And then there was Dr. Pranati Tilak, calm and composed, like the steady anchor in a storm. These three weren’t there to dance around issues. They were there to tell it like it is—no sugarcoating, no fluff. And you could feel the room start to shift. Their message was clear: if India didn’t fix its sports Eco-system, it was game over for any Olympic dreams.

The mood was set, but it didn’t stay calm for long. The next panel, “Decoding the League Culture,” went straight for the jugular. Kailash Kandpal, who made Puneri Paltan the juggernaut it is, didn’t come to chat about sponsorships or TV ratings. He was talking about survival—about making leagues that people actually cared about, not just following trends or chasing foreign dollars. For him, the sport was about something deeper, a bond with the community that’s hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.

Then there was Mandar Tamhane, who lives and breathes football through his work with NorthEast United FC. His focus was on one simple, undeniable fact: if India didn’t start embracing football as its true sport, any hope for Olympic success was just that—a dream. A pretty, distant dream. He spoke with such passion you almost felt like the entire country should be shutting down for a football match.

Next up was Parvin Dabas, an actor turned advocate for Pro Panja League, a form of arm wrestling that’s slowly making waves in India. His talk wasn’t just about strength; it was about a return to the basics of physicality. Forget the shiny new sports that come and go with trends—Panja wrestling is all about raw, gritty power. Dabas was adamant: it was time to bring back the sports that were built on real physical strength, not the tech-saturated world we’re drowning in.

And then Rishi Bhansali, the founder of Pickleball, stepped up, and let’s just say it wasn’t your typical panel. Pickleball? Yes, it’s a thing. But Bhansali wasn’t just here to talk about paddle sports; he was here to talk about building communities around sports. His point was simple: clubs should be as important as schools, as temples, as landmarks. Sports should mean something to the neighborhoods they belong to.

By the time the heavy hitters like Pawan Singh from Gun for Glory Academy, Lokesh Suji talking esports, and Rishikesh Joshi weighed in, the message couldn’t have been clearer: India needed more than just flashy banners or half-built stadiums. It needed a complete overhaul. Big changes, and fast. The status quo wasn’t working, and if India wanted to be a real contender on the world stage, the cracks in the foundation needed to be fixed yesterday.

As the day wound down, you couldn’t help but feel like something had shifted. These weren’t just dreamers talking theory—they were doers, and they weren’t here to hold your hand. They were here to demand action. But if you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed it. The revolution in Indian sports had quietly begun, and while the path forward was unclear, the momentum was undeniable.

So, what does all of this mean? Well, it’s simple: SPORTS CON Pune 2025 wasn’t just a day of panels. It was a wake-up call for a nation that had been dreaming too long and building too little. The people in that room were ready to fight for the kind of sports culture India deserves—not the flashy image, not the Insta-worthy moments, but the real stuff that comes from the grassroots up. No one promised it would be easy, but then again, whoever promised that revolutions were fun?

India’s Olympic dreams might still be distant, but they don’t have to be impossible. It all starts with taking action—big, messy, necessary action. If you missed the revolution, don’t worry; there’s always next year. Or maybe, just maybe, there won’t be.