Remembering Praveen Kumar Sobti - Asian Games gold medallist & the 'Bheem' of Mahabharat
With quotes from an interview to TimesofIndia.com's Amit Kumar in May 2020NEW DELHI: Watching the mythological TV series 'Mahabharat' every Sunday on Doordarshan in the late 1980s and early 1990s became part of life for every household across India, and the characters received the love of audiences that very few programmes aired on television can match even now. Understandably then, losing any of those characters will always be a sorrow shared nationwide. February 7, 2022, was another such unfortunate day when Praveen Kumar Sobti, who played the role of 'Bheem' in that epic series, breathed his last at the age of 74. Sobti, who was also an elite Indian athlete before his plunge into acting, died following a cardiac arrest late on Monday evening at his residence in Delhi. A discus-throw Olympian during his playing days, Sobti won as many as four medals at the Asian Games (two gold, one silver, one bronze) during his days as a track and field athlete. He also represented India in two Olympic Games - in Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972.
