Mumbai, July 1 -- The phone call that changed everything came when Aanil Mohan was fast asleep. By the time he woke up, his life had been changed. U Mumba had just secured his signature for a staggering INR 78 lakhs - the highest-ever bid in Category D in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) history - but the young man from the small village of Jasui in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district was still processing the magnitude of what just happened.

"At first, I couldn't believe it," Aanil recalled, as quoted from a release by PKL.

"When I found out that U Mumba bought me for Rs 78 lakhs, I just couldn't believe it was real," he added.

In the world of kabaddi, where Haryana dominates the headlines and produces the superstars, Aanil Mohan represents so...