In 2006, a five-year-old boy from Odisha ran his way into the Limca Book of Records. Budhia, with his record of completing a 65km run from Puri to Bhubaneswar, remains India's youngest marathon runner. That same year he bagged the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award. There was a string of felicitation ceremonies in India and abroad. And then, the little champ fell off India's sports map.

The story of Budhia's steady rise and abrupt disappearance from the sporting arena is inextricably linked with the life and struggles of his coach, mentor and adoptive father - Biranchi Das.

Das was a judo coach and in-charge of the Orissa State Judo Association hall, Bhubaneswar. The hall is a mess-cum-training centre for judo talents from impoverished families. Das and his wife Geetanjali, also a judo coach, raised, fed and trained their brood on their combined salaries.

Budhia's parents were slum dwellers. "His mother had sold him to a vendor. Biranchi found him and brought him to live with us," says Geetanjali.

It was Geetanjali who made the toddler run initially, just to keep him engaged. And since the prize for running every lap was a toffee, little Budhia obliged. Even then, it did not strike the couple that the child was a born runner.

Meanwhile, Budhia was getting naughtier. He would use swear words he had possibly picked up from his years in the slum. Das would punish him by making him run. "One day, he left for work after punishing him; when he came back after a couple of hours, Budhia was still running," says Geetanjali.

A worried and possibly a somewhat guilty Das rushed Budhia to his friend and GP Dr Siddhartha Mohanty. "Budhia was normal. His blood pressure and heartbeat were normal. After a few tests we realised he had a very high mass of red muscles and that's why he could run for miles without getting tired," says Dr Mohanty.

After that day, Das drew up a plan for Budhia. He worked out a diet chart and thought up ways to enhance his stamina.

Priyabrata Patnaik was president of the Orissa State Judo Association in 2006. He says, "Biranchi was thinking of sending Budhia to the Army Sports Institute, Pune, to train for the Olympics."

The year was 2007. All future plans for Budhia were in place, when things started going wrong for Das, and by extension Budhia.

Budhia ran the record-breaking marathon in peak summer, and exhausted himself. His biological mother, Sukanti, who had reappeared on the scene lately, used this incident to press charges of child abuse against Das. The Child Welfare Committee swung into action and took the boy away from Das's care. "Biranchi was wrongly imprisoned for a week," says Patnaik.

Das eventually got a clean chit and was released , but the guru-shishya association was broken. In 2008, Das was shot dead by a local goon. He was 41.

Budhia is now 14. For the last eight years he has been living at the Sports Authority of India hostel in Bhubaneswar, and attending the D.A.V. Public School in Chandrasekharpur. For some reason he is being trained to be a sprinter.

"He cannot win 100m or 200m races. But last year, we had a 1,500m race and he stood first. Our sports curriculum does not include marathon," says Indira Bhattacharya, D.A.V. vice-principal

Dr Mohanty is bitter about the whole thing. "After Biranchi, Budhia has not got the right kind of training. He does not have enough white muscles and cannot be a sprinter. Even his haemoglobin levels have dipped." In sporting circles too, Budhia has been written off.

At such a time, enters Soumendra Padhi.

Padhi, also from Odisha, is a former student of Das and Geetanjali. He knew about Budhia and when he started planning his directorial debut in Bollywood - Budhia Singh - Born To Run is slated for an August 5 release - he decided to mix business with homage.

"I read, met the characters involved, listened to the conflicting voices, met journalists who covered the story... The film is an interpretation of what I felt," he says. Padhi has been in touch with B.S. Gill who had sponsored the record-breaking marathon and is now trying to arrange for proper coaching. He says, "Paan Singh Tomar, Milkha Singh, all come from an army background. Only an army school [training] can save Budhia from sinking."