BREAKING BARRIERS: Vidya Pillai's Rise as a Snooker Champion

CHENNAI-BORN VIDYA PILLAI IS A TEN-TIME WOMEN'S NATIONAL SNOOKER CHAMPION. SHE HAS THE DISTINCTION OF BEING THE FIRST AND ONLY INDIAN WOMAN TO BECOME A WORLD CHAMPION IN SNOOKER 2023. SHE WAS PART OF THE FIRST INDIAN WOMEN'S TEAM TO WIN THE GOLD MEDAL IN THE WORLD SNOOKER DOUBLES. SHE HAS RECENTLY MADE THE COUNTRY PROUD WITH HER. SHE WAS THE SILVER MEDALIST AT THE WCBS WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP AT KIELCE, POLAND IN 2024.

- DAYA KINGSTON

What inspired you to take up snooker, and when did you realize it could become a professional career?

I was introduced to snooker in 2000 by a friend, Hemang Badani, a left-handed batsman, from Tamil Nadu. We went to a pool snooker parlor and I realized that the sport was accessible to everyone. I was fascinated the first time I played and I wanted to continue till I got the hang of it, I saw others potting balls with ease and I found it a very exciting challenge. A few months after I started playing, I was inspired. I was doing freelance photography back then, and once a month became twice and then weekends. Soon, I started playing every day; eventually by the end of the year, I enrolled in the Tamilnadu Billiards and Snooker Association and sent in my entry for State Ranking. I didn’t know playing snooker was a career, I thought people just unwound and played randomly. However, I made it to the semi-finals that year. When they had the prize distribution, I met a sweet lady whom I assumed was the elderly relative of some player. In the women’s category we both played snooker and this lady Kamala Chandra Babu she went and collected the prize for both billiards and snooker. She must have been in her mid-60s back then and she was already a champion. I was shocked and figured if she could do it in her 60’s I could do it in my 20’s. Every other ranking women’s game that I played I won consistently.

How has the perception of snooker in India evolved since you started playing?