Budhia Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Budhia Singh

• Budhia was born in a poor family in the state of Odisha.

• His father died when Budhia was still an infant.

• Because of destitute and poverty, his mother sold him to a travelling agent for only 800 INR in the year 2004.

• When her mother saw that the agent was exploiting Budhia, she asked for a help to a local Judo Coach and orphanage operator, Biranchi Das, who later bought back Budhia and took him to his orphanage.

•  Budhia was a “saucy lad” and once Biranchi Das punished him by making him run and forgot about him, When Biranchi Das came back after 5 hours, he saw Budhia was still running.

• Biranchi Das began to train Budhia and by the time Budhia turned 4, he had run and completed 48 marathons.

• At the age of four, Budhia ran from Bhubaneswar to Puri covering 65 kilometers in 7 hours and 2 minutes and became world’s youngest marathon runner.

• Budhia attained a celebrity status at a very young age and appeared in a number of television commercials.

• In 2011, a feature-length documentary, Marathon Boy (covering Budhia and Das) was released. The documentary was funded by BBC Storyville and HBO and was nominated for an EMMY.

• Budhia’s fame diminished as quickly as it rose and according to some sources, he cannot even win his school race these days.

• A full-length Bollywood feature film on the life of Budhia, Budhia – Born to Run, is supposed to be released in August 2016 featuring Manoj Bajpayee.