Dattu's family could hardly meet both the ends with parents' meager earning as daily wage laborers.

[6][7] Hence, he dropped off the school in 2007 to do all kinds of odd jobs such as masonry, waiter in the wedding parties, helper on the farms, as a driver on tractors, earth movers, and other transportation vehicles.

Now he is being trained under Dronacharya Awardee and chief National rowing coach Ismail Baig at the ARN, Pune.

Dattu was the lone Indian rower to be qualified after winning a silver medal in the men's single sculls event at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic qualification regatta held at Chung-Ju in South Korea in 2016.

[18] In the same year, Dattu won Gold medal at American National Championship at Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Dattu Bhokanal won gold medal in quadruple sculls at Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang 2018 with timing 6 Minutes and 17.13 Seconds.