Sonika Kaliraman Biography
For Sonika Kalirama wrestling was her destiny, born the daughter of Master Wrestler Chandgi Ram. This places her among an elite group of only 200 female wrestlers in all of India and only 50 to represent the country internationally. Adding to her credit, she is the only female wrestler yet to represent India in the Asian Games, participating in the Asian Games at Doha.
In 2020, Kaliraman became the first woman wrestler to win the Bharat Kesri Trophy. The Bharat Kesri Dangal is a freestyle wrestling competition, and the trophy is awarded each year to one competitor deemed India’s best heavyweight wrestler.
Over the course of her career, she and her brother, Jagdish, have become two of the best wrestlers and one of the best wrestling combos in India. Their other siblings, Om Kaliraman and Hanumante Kaliraman, are also accomplished wrestlers in India.
Today, Kaliraman is seen as an inspiration to young Indian girls interested in entering women’s wrestling.
Sonika Kaliraman: Reality TV Star
Other Sonika Kaliraman news outside of wrestling is of her multiple appearances on reality TV competition shows.
In 2009, she appeared in the reality TV show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi hosted by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar; she came in eighth place of thirteen.
From 2011 to 2012, she competed in Bigg Boss (Hindi Season 5.) She finished 13th of fourteen contestants when she walked off the show on Day Eight
FAQ
As a young woman, Kaliraman thought a career in wrestling would lead to a life of solitude, after, at age 23, her father showed her and her sisters photographs of Laila Ali, a South Indian woman and daughter of Mohammed Ali and Karnam Malleswari who won an Olympic gold medal for weightlifting. Women’s wrestling was also not a popular sport in India, exacerbating these concerns. Despite that, however, she married Siddhart Mallik in February 2009. Also a sportsperson, he was a national Martial Arts champion in the U.S. The pair remain happily married and live in California.
At 6’4” and 216-pound, Kaliraman wakes up at seven each morning and starts her day with a one-hour sprint. Then, she has a wrestling training session at the Akhada. Four nights each week, she also lifts weights at her local gym.
Sonkia Kaliraman was young when she first started training to wrestle under her father’s tutelage at the wrestling training camp he owned and ran.
Kaliraman was born on February 1, 1979 in Chandigarh, Haryana and raised in New Delhi.
Kaliraman’s net worth as of 2021 is estimated to be somewhere between $1 million and $5 million.
