Saina Nehwal
After retiring from his playing career, Pullela founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy in 2008, after reportedly mortgaging his own house. Nimmagadda Prasad, a renowned industrialist donated on a condition to win a medal for India at Olympics in badminton. The academy produced several badminton players including Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap, Srikanth Kidambi, Arundhati Pantawane, Gurusai Datt and Arun Vishnu. Saina Nehwal went on to win the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics and P. V. Sindhu the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and first Indian to win the BWF World Championships. Pullela also served as the official Indian Olympic Badminton Team coach at the 2016 Brazil's Rio Olympic.