HT Brunch Cover Story: True south

For Rohan Bopanna, 42, the ace tennis player who’s faced formidable opponents and outplayed them, the HT Brunch shoot was a lot of fun. But he admits, “Normally, I play tennis, I’m not a model. This was much more pressure; coming up with poses, smiles, looks… in tennis, there are no retakes. This took me out of my comfort zone!”

It’s very clear that his comfort zone is exactly where he is—no, not Tel Aviv or its Watergen Open, from where he’s speaking to me—and not even Bengaluru, the city he’s called home since 2000, and also the city where he was born. His parents moved to Coorg (Kodagu) where he lived until he was 14, before leaving for Pune where he played tennis for five years, and it is about Coorg that he speaks with the most affection.

He even chose to live in Bengaluru because, as Rohan explains, “It was pretty close to home [Coorg] and I just wanted to come back to the city where I had friends. I knew the language so that made it that much easier.”

Ace of base

In Coorg, Rohan, his sister Rashmi, and their parents, MG Bopanna and Malika Bopanna, lived on their family coffee estate, and had an almost paradisal childhood. However, it took Rohan a while to truly appreciate where he came from.

“Growing up, I hadn’t seen anything else. I didn’t know what else was out there in the world,” Rohan says.“Now, after travelling the world, I understand what Coorg gives you and brings to you with its greenery, surrounded by coffee plantations, and clean, fresh air… it was absolutely amazing. I’m privileged to have grown up in such a beautiful place.”

The town with a very close-knit community also set him on the right track for his career. “There was a club with a tennis court right next to our home,” he remembers. “I used to go there with my parents regularly. Every day, after I came back from school, we would go to the club—not just to play tennis—but to meet all our friends, and sometimes just be a ball boy on the court!”

There’s more to it than just tennis and nostalgia, of course. “Apart from tennis, the majority of friends that I have even today are from Coorg,” says Rohan. “My parents still live on the coffee plantation. That’s a special bond and I’m proud of it. Coorg is where it all began.”

Southern charm

Coming from a small city and getting to travel all over the world, not to mention India itself, Rohan has, unfortunately, experienced how it feels to be stereotyped as a “South Indian”.

“There have been instances, both in India and outside India, but for me, it’s all just learning,” he muses, without going into details about any particular incident. “It’s about how you take it.”

Rohan credits his parents for equipping him to deal with anything life throws at him.

“My parents gave me a solid foundation, teaching me how to always look ahead, look at positives, understand that everybody goes through a journey, and not to judge where anyone has come from. That was taught to me at a very young age and it helped in a very big way,” he reveals.

As a father himself now, Rohan knows that there may come a time when his three-year-old daughter, Tridha, may face some sort of discrimination, which is why he takes the same approach that his parents did with him.

“You don’t have to engage with somebody who discriminates against you because it only makes the situation worse,” says Rohan. “There’s so much more to the world than people trying to put each other down. That’s the learning we’re trying to pass on to our daughter.”

A sportsperson who was trained to just really focus on what he was doing, with a tunnel vision approach, Rohan says, “There will always be people who may put you down, who may be encouraging you but not with the right attitude or in a positive way. My parents always said, ‘Listen to whoever has something to say. Take all the good things, if need be. But listen, let go and move forward.”

Movie mania

When questioned whether he thinks movies—especially those made in Bollywood—perpetuate stereotypes about people from the south of India, Rohan says, “I only go to the movies to be entertained,” and admits that, “I used to watch a lot of Bollywood movies, but nowadays I’ve started watching more Tamil and Telugu movies, because they have subtitles.”

Whenever he travels, he makes sure he has access to Netflix or Amazon Prime. “The last film I watched was on the flight to Tel Aviv yesterday, Ek Villain,” he says. “Before that, my family and I went to the theatre to watch Brahmastra.” His only regret: “We watched it in 2D; I’m sure in 3D it would have been better!”

There’s very little you can find about Rohan on Wikipedia, Google, or the internet at large. And much of the information that’s out there is false, as we discover along the course of the interview. So, we ask the important questions and Rohan duly provides the answers: His all-time favourite actor is Aamir Khan, and his current favourite actress is Alia Bhatt!

“Back in the day, it was Juhi Chawla and Preity Zinta,” he laughs.

One love

The fact that he was able to travel contributed in a big way to him becoming who he is today, he says. But he also recognises his home town for making him streetwise.

“Growing up in Coorg, we didn’t have any phones or TV—maybe just a few channels. A lot of times we didn’t even have electricity. Naturally, there was a lot of outdoor activity happening, even just manoeuvring around the estate in the dark. That in a way made me a little more street smart,” Rohan acknowledges.

Leaving his hometown was an eye-opener for him. “Travel is a big education,” he states.

The first time he left India, he went to the US with his parents. It was 1992 and Rohan was awed by the sheer size of everything in the States.

“Everything was five times bigger,” Rohan laughs. “The shopping malls, the restaurants, the food! I went to the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy. In all of Coorg, we had three-four courts, but here was one centre with 50 tennis courts! That’s when it actually struck me that there are so many other tennis players around the globe and I have so much competition.”

Take a break

If there’s one thing that Rohan wants people to know about the southern states in India, it’s that, “we have fantastic coffee!” He’s still surprised that most people, even outside India, don’t know that India produces coffee.

“South India produces some of the best coffee there is. I think that’s something that should really be spoken about,” says the coffee afficionado.

When it comes to food, like most people around the world, Rohan’s comfort food is home food. “I love my roti and dal,” he says, and is quick to point out that he isn’t talking about the regular ‘roti’ as most people know it. “The roti in Karnataka is made out of rice,” he explains.“It’s white, and is a very traditional dish. I haven’t had the ‘regular’ roti for many years because I have an intolerance to yeast.”

This isn’t much of a hindrance for Rohan, though. “I like anything that has a rice base. And coming from Coorg,

the majority of our dishes have rice, so I’m fine!”

He does add the caveat, “My comfort food when I’m travelling is sushi!” and laments that Coorgi food, and South Indian food in general, is missing from the mainstream.

“We don’t even have any [Coorgi] restaurants in Bengaluru,” he says.“Maybe one or two, or maybe a few restaurants carry a couple of dishes. It’s unfortunate that most South Indian restaurants don’t have much of the traditional food. Most of them, especially the vegetarian ones, only have idli and dosa.”

Before signing off, Rohan tells us what he likes the most about living in Bengaluru and what he would change—without mentioning the words ‘weather’ or ‘traffic’.

“Having all my friends and family around me is amazing,” he says. “The one thing I would change is having restaurants open till later!”

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From HT Brunch, October 1, 2022

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