A New Sporting Chapter After 40: Nivedita Basu Emerges as a Seeded Squash Player for Maharashtra

For more than two decades, Nivedita Basu has been a familiar name in Indian television and entertainment. After building a successful career behind some of Indian television’s most recognised shows, taking on leadership roles across television and digital platforms, and eventually turning entrepreneur, Basu is now adding another identity to her journey — competitive sportsperson.

And she is doing it after 40.

Having taken up squash seriously much later than most competitive players, Nivedita today represents Maharashtra in the Masters circuit and has emerged as a seeded player in her category.

But sport itself is hardly new to her.

Sport Was Always in the DNA

Nivedita has always considered herself a sports person, never a gym person. Movement, competition and the discipline of sport came naturally, perhaps because she grew up surrounded by it.

Her father played tennis and squash, while her mother is an NIS Patiala graduate and competed at the national level in table tennis and handball.

So perhaps, as Nivedita puts it with a smile, “the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

What changed after 40 was not her relationship with sport, but the seriousness with which she began approaching it.

Squash moved from being something she enjoyed to something she wanted to train for, compete in and excel at.

From Television Success to Starting Again

Nivedita spent some of the defining years of her career with Balaji Telefilms, working on landmark television shows including Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Kasautii Zindagii Kay, among several others.

She later moved into senior leadership positions, including heading ULLU and Atrangii, experiencing first-hand the evolution of Indian entertainment from traditional television to OTT and digital platforms.

After decades of creating shows, building teams and working within large media organisations, she chose to step away from a conventional media career and turn entrepreneur — creating and building ventures of her own.

It was also during this phase that sport began occupying a much larger space in her life.

“Media has given me everything and will always be part of my identity. But media is also an unpredictable industry. Shows end, platforms change and positions change. I wanted to build parts of my life where what happens next is more in my hands. Sport gives me that.”

When Squash Became More Than Fitness

For Nivedita, the attraction was never simply about exercising.

“I’ve never really been a gym person. Give me a court, a racket, an opponent and something to compete for, and suddenly I can put in hours.”

She began training more systematically — working on technique, movement, stamina, match temperament and the repetition required to compete rather than simply play.

The results followed.

At the recent National Masters Squash Championship in Kolkata, Nivedita reached the semifinals, eventually going down to a four-time national champion. She now continues on the Masters circuit as a seeded player representing Maharashtra.

“I know I started competing seriously much later than many others. I can’t change when I started, but I can decide how seriously I take it now. Every training session and every tournament tells me there is still another level I can reach.”

A Second Chapter Women Can Own

For Nivedita, however, this isn’t only a story about squash.

It is about what women allow themselves to begin after 40.

Careers, motherhood, relationships and responsibilities can consume decades of a woman’s life. Somewhere along the way, many women stop asking themselves a simple question: What do I want to become next?

Nivedita wants her own sporting journey to encourage women to ask that question again.

“You don’t have to become a professional sportsperson. It doesn’t even have to be sport. But I believe every woman needs something that belongs to her — something that excites her, challenges her and gives her goals which are not connected to her job, family or anyone else’s expectations.”

This thinking has also led her to build Women & Racket Sports (WARS), an initiative aimed at bringing more women into squash, tennis, badminton, pickleball, table tennis and padel.

Her vision isn’t merely to celebrate elite players. It is to get more women onto courts — beginners, former players returning after years, mothers rediscovering sport and women who simply want to compete again.

Not Reinvention, But Evolution

Today, Nivedita’s worlds may appear dramatically different — media professional, entrepreneur and competitive Maharashtra squash player — but to her they are all parts of the same journey.

The ambition that once went into building television shows and running entertainment businesses now also goes into getting one more ball back, improving one more weakness and winning one more point.

She isn’t walking away from a successful past.

She is simply refusing to let that past define everything that comes next.

“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in media. But I don’t want to spend my life talking only about what I did 10 or 20 years ago. I want to remain excited about what I can still become.”

For Nivedita Basu, the next chapter has a squash racket in hand, Maharashtra on her side and a larger purpose behind it — to remind women that starting again after 40 isn’t late at all.

Sometimes, it is exactly when you’re ready.