Kochi-based Deepak Babu creates exclusive content on basketball for social media

Love drives Deepak Babu to different cities in India to document basketball tournaments; his love for the game keeps him “calm” and “at peace,” he says. 

Deepak is among the few content creators on basketball in India. Since 2019, the Mavelikkara native, settled in Kochi, has been documenting basketball tournaments across the country. He has covered tournaments across 14 states, storying highlights and special moments in over 900 videos on his Instagram page @straightoutofindia. Today, with close to 30,000 followers, Deepak is the official content creator of Indian National Basketball League (INBL5x5). He creates video content for INBL’s social media handle and creates posters and other promotional material as well.

From inter-school and inter-collegiate tournaments to league matches, he covers every tournament. “Basketball is still a small sport in India; it doesn’t enjoy the limelight that football and cricket do. The videos I do are an attempt to draw more people to the game,” he says.

Over the past 13 years, Deepak and a bunch of like-minded people — Binoy Babu, Anish Joseph Manuel, Soorath Kandathil and Achyuth Unnikrishnan — have formed a community of basketball lovers in Kochi who get together at Don Bosco Youth Centre at Vennala, to play. “There aren’t many exclusive basketball courts in the city and we felt the need to create a space where youngsters could play and enjoy the sport. However, it isn’t exclusive to young, professional players. Anyone who loves the game is welcome,” says Deepak, who is “at the ground every other day to watch people play and sometimes, groom kids as and when they need guidance.” 

A mural of Manu Ginobili done by the artists in the team
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Rebuilding a court

The Court, which was in bad shape, was rebuilt under the guidance of Fr. Antony Vaillat, the current rector of Don Bosco, Vennala. The surface of the court was retouched, plastered and painted sandtex matte. Allan Peter, the artist among the friends, did a mural of Manu Ginobili, a few days before the Argentinian NBA champion announced his retirement from basketball in 2019. It was one of the basketball courts in India to be featured on the NBA website in 2019. They later painted a portrait of famous NBA star Kobe Bryant — as a tribute — after he passed away in a chopper crash in 2020. 

The refurbished court conducted its first tournament in 2018 and has just hosted the seventh edition of the four-day all India full-court inter-collegiate Don Bosco Arena Tournament.

Members of the collective during an Onam celebration
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Special Arrangement

Though not a professional basketball player, Deepak has been playing the game among other sports since his childhood. “I used to play cricket and football and I am a hardcore football fan. But it was instant love with basketball. There is something restorative about the game, something that makes you want to be around it,” he says. His father, retired head of the department of Physics, KG college, Pampady, was an ardent sports lover, who instilled in Deepak a love for sports.

An engineer, Deepak quit a lucrative IT career for the love of sport, and he has been working towards popularising the sport in Kochi.

Social media influencer

The first tournament he documented was the Chennai Loyola Trophy in 2019, followed by matches in Kozhikode, Mangaluru and Bengaluru. When COVID struck, it came to a halt, but as soon as the world opened up and tournaments restarted, Deepak was back to doing what he loved the most — watching basketball matches and making videos.  

He soon invested in a camera and equipment and now has a small team, which includes Pranav Sanjeev Krishna and Ananth Rajesh. The videos are often a shoutout to individual players. “I try to highlight promising talents on the court and it has helped at least a few kids get noticed,” he says. 

Murals painted by the artists in the team
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The popularity of his videos among followers of the sport also got him the chance to create and curate content for Chennai Blitz, the men’s volleyball team from Chennai playing in the Prime Volleyball Chennai Franchise in India. 

Diagnosed with ulcerative pancolitis, a chronic condition that affects the large intestine, at the age of 21, Deepak spent long spells in the hospital and says it was his passion for basketball that helped him survive the dark days. “All I wanted was to get to the court. Just watching kids play put me at peace,” he says, adding: “For many of these children, too, the engagement with the game keeps them off bad company, drugs and even issues at home. It is a great way to channel their energies in the right direction.”