From Ruling Radio Waves To Redefining The CXO World: RJ Anmol Is Building A New Sports Culture For The C-Suite

For over two decades, RJ Anmol has understood what it takes to build an audience. He first did it through radio, where Purani Jeans became a defining retro-music property, and later across television, digital content and sports broadcasting. Today, he is applying that same instinct to a very different audience, India’s C-suite.

As the Founder of Grav8 Sports, Anmol is building a premium sports ecosystem where sport becomes more than competition. His proposition is to bring CXOs and senior business leaders onto the same court, creating a space where networking, relationships, wellness and sport converge naturally.

The idea comes from a relationship with sport that predates his entrepreneurial journey. Anmol grew up inspired by his father, a national-level athlete, and played badminton at the state level himself. Sport remained an important part of his life even as his career moved into entertainment and broadcasting.

With Grav8, he is now attempting to take that personal connection and turn it into a larger movement. 

The first major expression was the CXO Pickleball League, launched in September 2025 in Mumbai as India’s first CXO-focused pickleball league. Rather than creating another conventional sporting event, Anmol built a premium platform around the idea that some of the country’s most influential business relationships could be created away from conference rooms and formal meetings. The inaugural edition brought together senior corporate leaders and prominent sporting personalities, with Olympic medallist and former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal becoming the face of the league and industrialist Dr Niranjan Hiranandani participating in its first edition. The property subsequently expanded from Mumbai into Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Goa through partnerships including Regalia Business Parks.

Grav8 subsequently extended the format beyond pickleball with the CXO Baddy League, executed in Mumbai on October 18 at NSCI Dome. The badminton-focused property featured Saina Nehwal as its brand ambassador, with HDFC ERGO, Yotta Data Services and Regalia Business Parks among its partners. Together, the two properties reflect Anmol’s approach of using established sports formats to create opportunities for senior business leaders to compete, stay active and build relationships outside traditional corporate settings.

The ecosystem is also becoming more closely connected to professional sport itself. Saina Nehwal has continued her association with Grav8, while Asia No. 1 pickleball player Armaan Bhatia has come on board as a partner, adding current professional expertise to the platform. Bhatia has also participated alongside CXOs, including at the Bengaluru edition, where he shared the court with business leaders and former Titan MD C K Venkataraman.

For Anmol, the larger opportunity lies in what happens when sport becomes a regular part of the C-suite experience. A boardroom can create professional connections; a sporting environment can create a different kind of relationship, one built through competition, teamwork, shared experiences and time spent together. 

That is the space Grav8 is attempting to own. 

“I don’t want Grav8 to be another sports property. I want it to become a movement that changes the way India’s most influential people experience sport. Imagine a country where the C-suite doesn’t just invest in sport, sponsor sport or watch sport, but actively plays it, builds communities around it and takes that culture back into their organisations. If we can make sport a serious part of India’s leadership culture, we can influence corporate India, create stronger sporting communities and, over time, help build a country that doesn’t just produce sporting champions, but lives like a sporting nation,” Anmol said.

Anmol’s ambition is not limited to creating leagues or events. He sees sport as a powerful social and professional connector that can influence how people engage with each other across industries and generations. His larger vision extends to making sport a more integral part of corporate life while also widening its relevance across schools and senior citizens.

He has even spoken about the ambition of creating an “Olympics for senior citizens” in India, an idea that reflects his belief that sport should not have an age limit or belong only to professional athletes.