Sportfolio Productions just dropped India’s first comprehensive football documentary series. With TFB’s Pranay as host, they traveled through India’s forgotten football heartlands. What they found will change how you see the beautiful game forever.
You know that feeling when you first traveled to watch a European away match? The anticipation. The unfamiliar stadium. The local fans who live and breathe their club like it’s religion. The stories that don’t make it to Match of the Day.
Now imagine that across an entire country. Five regions. Five episodes. Three hours of pure football culture that 99% of fans have never seen.
That’s Travellers Guide to Indian Football.
Created by Sportfolio Productions and hosted by TFB’s own Pranay, this documentary crew crossed borders, sat with legends, and uncovered stories that deserve the same reverence we give to the Busby Babes or Ajax’s Total Football.
EPISODE 1: KOLKATA – Where Derby Day Makes El Clásico Look Tame
▶️ WATCH EPISODE 1: KOLKATA
The series opens in Kolkata, and straight away you’re hit with this: imagine if Liverpool-Everton, United-City, and Celtic-Rangers all existed in the same city. Now add 130+ years of history, colonial resistance, and riots that actually shut down entire neighborhoods.
Welcome to the Big Three:
- Mohun Bagan– The aristocrats. Think Real Madrid’s heritage but more emotional)
- East Bengal– The people’s club. If Liverpool’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was actually a lifestyle for a community. East Bengal is the representative.
- Mohammedan Sporting– The forgotten innovators. They gave India its first European export and demonstrated the importance of playing with boots
The madness? Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal draws 60,000+ fans who treat this like their Super Bowl, Champions League final, and World Cup combined. These aren’t “plastic fans” who showed up when Sky Sports arrived. These are families who’ve passed down allegiances like heirlooms.
EPISODE 2: PUNJAB – From Village Tournaments to Gothia Cup Glory
▶️ WATCH EPISODE 2: PUNJAB
Remember when Leicester won the Premier League and everyone lost their minds? Now imagine a Punjab-based academy from India going to Sweden and winning the Gothia Cup—a tournament that Zlatan, Xabi Alonso, and Andrea Pirlo all lifted.
That actually happened. In 2023. Minerva Punjab made history.
But Punjab’s football culture runs deeper than one tournament. The Sportfolio team discovered something wild: local village tournaments here have prize money running into lakhs (tens of thousands). Commentary flows in Punjabi. Entire communities shut down for matches.
The region produced Jarnail Singh, a towering figure from Indian football’s golden era, and today it’s giving the world Manisha Kalyan—who just became the first Indian footballer to sign with a top-division South American club (Alianza Lima in Peru). From Hoshiarpur to Athens to Peru. That’s a career trajectory that deserves way more hype.
The Pattern: Punjab doesn’t produce players by accident. Competition is literally inherited here. From wrestling pits to football fields, the culture demands excellence or nothing.
EPISODE 3: HYDERABAD – The Architect Who Inspired Brazil
▶️ WATCH EPISODE 3: HYDERABAD
Pop quiz: Which coach’s tactical system inspired Brazil’s 1958 World Cup winners?
If you said anything other than Syed Abdul Rahim from Hyderabad, you need to watch this episode immediately.
Under Rahim Saab, India:
- Won two Asian Games gold medals
- Finished 4th at the Olympics
- Developed a playing style so advanced that Brazil studied it
This wasn’t some mythical past. This was 1951-1962. India was playing organized, technical football while most of Asia was still figuring out the offside rule.
Modern Revival: The series captures Soumya Guguloth, an explosive winger who’s dribbled her way from Telangana to Kolkata via Kerala and Croatia. Her journey mirrors what Hyderabad is trying to rebuild—a sustainable pathway from grassroots to the top tier.
And yes, Shabbir Ali appears again (the man is everywhere), this time explaining how Hyderabad’s football culture survived despite decades of institutional neglect.
EPISODE 4: KASHMIR – Football as Hope in the Valley
▶️ WATCH EPISODE 4: KASHMIR
This one hits different.
Kashmir’s story isn’t about trophies or transfer records. It’s about what football means when it’s one of the few spaces where people can gather freely, celebrate, and dream.
Real Kashmir FC plays matches during curfews. Fans travel through conflict zones to support their team. Players like Mehrajuddin Wadoo and Ishfaq Ahmed carried Kashmir’s name into India’s top leagues when no one was watching.
Then there’s Abdul Majeed Kakroo—the first Kashmiri to captain the Indian national team and play for both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal (imagine being beloved by both Liverpool AND Everton fans).
The documentary captures something crucial here: football in Kashmir isn’t escapism. It’s survival. It’s identity. It’s the one thing that reminds the world that normalcy still exists in the valley.
EPISODE 5: SIKKIM – Where Bhaichung Built a Legacy Above the Clouds
▶️ WATCH EPISODE 5: SIKKIM
At 16, a kid from a tiny Himalayan village called Tinkitam decided he’d become India’s greatest footballer.
By 37, Bhaichung Bhutia had done exactly that:
- First Indian to sign with a European club (Bury FC in England)
- Played against some of Asia’s best and didn’t look out of place
- Became the face of Indian football for an entire generation
The final episode travels to Sikkim where football lives closer to the sky than anywhere else. Here, schools finish early so kids can train. Tournaments mark festivals. Football is woven into the cultural fabric like tea and monasteries.
But here’s the tension captured beautifully: Sikkim produces talent constantly, but infrastructure can’t keep pace. Coaches work without salaries. Academies operate on hope. Yet somehow, the passion survives.
Why This Series Hits Different?
Most football documentaries either worship the past or sell you a polished future. Travellers Guide to Indian Football does neither.
Instead, Sportfolio Productions asks: What happens when you strip away the broadcast deals, the billion-dollar transfers, and the Instagram metrics?
You find football in its rawest form:
- Parents sending kids across the country with nothing but hope
- Coaches working unpaid because they believe
- Fans treating clubs like family heirlooms
- Players who carry the weight of entire communities on their backs
With Pranay as host, the team didn’t just visit these places—they sat with the legends, walked the same grounds, and listened to stories that deserve the same respect we give to Munich, Lisbon, or Istanbul.
The Uncomfortable Truth We Don’t Talk About
We obsess over Haaland’s goal-per-game ratio and Mbappé’s next transfer. We debate Pep vs. Klopp tactics for hours. 305 million Indians watch football regularly, and most of us couldn’t name five Indian footballers if our lives depended on it.
This series exposes that gap. Not with lectures or guilt trips, but with stories so compelling you’ll wonder why Netflix hasn’t snatched this up yet.
European Football Fans: This One’s For You
If you’ve ever:
- Traveled to an away match in a town you’d never heard of
- Sat in a pub listening to old-timers talk about players from the ’70s
- Felt the weight of walking into a historic stadium for the first time
- Understood that football is more than just 90 minutes
Then you’ll get this series.
Because what Sportfolio Productions documented across India is what you felt the first time you stood in the Kop, the Yellow Wall, or the San Siro.
Football as culture. Football as identity. Football as religion.
Just in places you’ve never heard of, featuring legends you’ve never Googled.
Watch The Series Now on Sportfolio Productions
🎬 FULL SERIES PLAYLIST:
Travellers Guide to Indian Football – Complete Series
📺 SUBSCRIBE TO SPORTFOLIO PRODUCTIONS:
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Total Runtime: 3+ hours of pure football culture
Cost: Free (seriously, just watch it)
Vibe: Think “All or Nothing” meets Anthony Bourdain’s food travel shows, but for Indian football
The Bottom Line
Sportfolio Productions crossed three countries and eight Indian states to answer one question – What does Indian football actually look like when you remove the stereotypes, the pity narratives, and the colonial hang-ups?
- The answer is 3+ hours of the most authentic football storytelling you’ll see this year.
- No CGI. No dramatic voiceovers. No manufactured storylines.
- Just real people, real clubs, and real passion that’s been burning for over a century.
With TFB’s Pranay as your guide through this journey, you’ll discover why football is called “the beautiful game”—it’s not about the money or the fame.
It’s about the stories. And India’s got stories that deserve to be told.
- 👉 Start with Episode 1 (Kolkata) on the Sportfolio Productions YouTube channel and let us know which region surprised you most.
- 👉 Subscribe to their channel to catch all five episodes
- 👉 Tag us when you share clips—we want to know what moments hit you hardest.
- 👉 And if this series doesn’t make you want to book a flight to Kolkata for a derby match, you might want to check your pulse.
