Prakashi Tomar on her secretive foray into the sport and why she’d tell Taapsee Pannu to cover her face
Ankita Chaurasia (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 25, 2019)

After training in sharpshooting for two years, Prakashi Tomar won a medal for the first time in 2000, defeating Deputy Inspector General of Delhi Police, Dheeraj Singh. She hid the newspaper article congratulating her on the feat but 10 years later, when her daughter Seema cinched silver in Trap Shooting at the ISSF World Cup in England, Prakashi had an entourage of five cars and three dholwallahs waiting to welcome her at the airport.

“I wanted her to know that she is a hero. Just like my granddaughter Ruby, who is now an inspector,” says dadi, her voice quivering with pride. This, for her, is the measure of progress that Baghpat, their village in Uttar Pradesh, has made. But change was far from her mind when she first picked up a rifle.

Prakashi, like her sister-in-law Chandro, only accompanied her daughter to the Johri Rifle Club to encourage her. When she hit bullseye on the first attempt, the coaches couldn’t look past her. “Milk five cows every day and work in the fields, you will also have the strength to hold and fire a gun,” chuckles the 82-year-old sharpshooter, reveling in the look of surprise on everyone’s face.

With her ghoonghat in place, she fields questions playfully, looks straight into the camera and even hums a tune in-between shots. “My childhood was spent working. I got married at 19 and was running the household, milking cows, cooking and working in the fields. I only started playing once I turned 60,” she points out.

While she has won several medals in her 22-year career, her first victory, against a man, remains the most memorable. “He didn’t want to be photographed, having lost the match to me,” she laughs. “I used to practice with a jug in my hand after everyone had gone to sleep or while working in the cowshed. For my first competition, I lied to my husband and family, saying I was going to my maika.”

It was only when her sons assured their father that the medals she’d won were of real gold, that they let her ‘play’. Ironically, despite having a weapons’ license, none of Prakashi or Chandro’s sons took up the sport. “They have their jobs, but my daughters are winning medals,” she smiles.

The Revolver Dadis are happy about the biopic because they want everyone to know that it’s the body that gets old, not the mind. Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar, who shot in the house adjoining the Tomars, are now family for the octogenarian. “They used to come running barefoot into my house. I’d admonish them, tell them to cover their face with a ghoonghat. We didn’t want the look to be out, no?” Prakashi, Taapsee’s role model, reasons. And did the actresses nail the look? “Look what they did to their pretty faces! Taapsee insisted we should have started our careers when we were young, so that they didn’t have to turn gray. Now their parents know what they will look like when they turn 60,” she laughs.

Saand Ki Aankh opens this Diwali. Surprisingly, there are still no theatres in their village and women shy away from going to the all-men screenings at neighbours’ homes. “We go to the movies only when we’re visiting the nearest cities,” Prakashi says matter-of-factly. “But we plan on screening our film for the village. Hope it inspires more women to follow their dreams,” she signs off.


Seema and Prakashi Tomar; Taapsee Pannu in Saand Ki Aankh (above)