Rahul Chaudhari, 30, popularly known as Showman, has 1 million followers on Instagram, more than Olympians Vijender Singh, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Bajrang Punia. A kabaddi player, Chaudhari, from Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor, is a raider, meaning he plays offensive, storming the ‘den’ of the opposing team. He has 1,039 raid points in 150 Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) matches in his nine-year-long career, one of just five to have crossed the 1,000 mark.
The former India player, one of those responsible for building the popularity of the game, was bought for just ₹13 lakh at the auctions earlier this month for PKL 2023, a long way from Delhi’s Pawan Sehrawat, 27, who was sold to the Telugu Titans for ₹2.6 crore. He made headlines for being the most expensive player in the league’s history. Last year, the Tamil Thalaivas had bought him for ₹2.26 crore. Sehrawat captained the Indian team that won this year’s Asian Games gold , defeating Iran, after an hour-long fracas over points.
