Nijam with Smita: Sudheer Babu, Pullela Gopichand open up on childhood, friendship, shared love for badminton

The fourth episode of Sony LIV’s latest talk show, Nijam with Smita, hosted by musician, actress and entrepreneur Smita Vallurupalli, will be arriving on the streamer this weekend on March 3. The guests for the episode are actor Sudheer Babu and sportsperson Pullela Gopichand, childhood friends who also chased a career in badminton together many years ago.

The episode is titled Unleashing Potential where Gopichand looks back at his eventful career, recalling how he overcame many professional and personal hiccups to make it big in badminton. Meanwhile, Sudheer Babu tells why it wasn’t easy to leave a formidable career in badminton to make his mark in Telugu cinema and find his feet as an actor.

In the episode, the duo also reminisces about their childhood, time with family, their friendship, discussing sports and beyond, while also sharing surprising facts related to their past. Did you know Pullela Gopichand and Sudheer Babu were roommates too? Sudheer Babu is also touted to play the lead role in the Pullela Gopichand biopic, slated to be a pan-Indian film that’ll go on floors soon.

Gopichand, in the latest promo of the fourth episode of the show, shares why it’s not easy to see students coming to him and leaving his academy later. “It’s like holding onto a bird; you can neither hold it tightly nor let it fly away easily,” he said. On a lighter note, Sudheer shared how it was difficult for him to practice meditation after marriage.

SonyLIV’s earlier guests for the three episodes were Chandrababu Naidu, Chiranjeevi, Nani and Rana Daggubati, who discussed topics like nepotism, upward mobility and ‘populism vs development’, to name a few. Sudheer Babu’s next release is Mama Mascheendra, directed by Harshavardhan.

The actor was last seen in Hunt, the Telugu remake of the Malayalam hit Mumbai Police, that originally starred Prithviraj Sukumaran. Hunt, directed by Mahesh Surapaneni, also stars Srikanth, Bharath and can be streamed on aha and Amazon Prime Video.

Also read: Nijam with Smita: Rana Daggubati and Nani give their take on the ‘insider vs outsider’ debate and nepotism