The fight to act

lsquoBeing praised for your looks is intoxicatingrsquoAnupam Kher 66A popular notion in the fitness community is that if you wish to know whether or not a person practices CrossFit you need not do much Why Because a person who practices CrossFit will brag about doing so anyway at every afforded opportunity Anupam Kher seems to be in the midst of a similar phase in his life He speaks about fitness with childlike enthusiasm admitting that having dedicatedly taken to it only six years ago he considers being the muse of a fitnessrelated interview a ldquocheap thrillrdquo Out and about with his ldquoyoung friendsrdquo like Varun Dhawan and Aditya Roy Kapur his relatively newly acquired interest makes him ldquocontemporaryrdquo and now an active participant in conversations about training Eversooften he finds joy in asking his colleagues to ldquotouch my bicepsrdquo to monitor his progress or notice his shirts becoming tighterUnlike the array of actors bagging negative roles in Bollywood Kher says his formative years were not defined by the need to look bulky ldquoAntiheroes like my character Dr Dang Karma were cerebral They had to look like normal human beings Also the other negative characters that I played were of the kind that didnrsquot require me to gain weight I was usually the mama or taya of another character Also what worked to my advantage was that I started my career playing characters that were older than I was at the time I played a 65yearold when I was 28 played Hema Malinirsquos father and grandfather to Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor That was an advantage Because as years passed people didnrsquot see me as a young man growing oldrdquoAt his heaviest at 94 kilos six years ago Kher realised he had been looking fuller and decided to train his focus on a fitness routine After a fair share of trial and error mdash involving walking excessively to clock 10000 steps then 15000 and subsequently 20000 on his fitness tracker mdash and ending up with a knee injury he sought professional help An amalgamation of walking yoga practice and weighttraining helped him knock off 11 kilos ldquoAt parties people praised me for the way I looked That is intoxicating Being fit has made me approach my roles with a different attitude Sharing posts on Instagram implies that by making my journey accessible to the public I am more inclined to stick to my routine No one will want to see me out of shape againrdquoAlso Read How Rupal Sidhpura Faria makes Bollywood stars bendy like GumbyKher talks about his love for food and sweets with adulation ldquoWhatrsquos a Gujarati thaali without aamras or roti without gheerdquo he asks pulling up a piece of chocolate and stating that should he give into his temptation this would be his second indulgence in the day ldquoBut I am generally disciplined I donrsquot like to drink and donrsquot smoke I think walking is an amazing exercise When I was in New York I loved to walk I also prefer walking in hill stationsrdquoKher on his dietI begin the day with Water and saffron that has been stored overnight in a copper vessel I follow it up with soaked almonds and walnutsMy preferred choice of breakfast Poha or one paratha In the day I also consume coconut waterEating pattern I prefer I eat every two hours I cannot take to a format like intermittent fasting where all that you think about for 24 hours is foodFoods I enjoy I prefer eating rice over roti as has been recommended to me I enjoy Gujarati and Bengali foodlsquoBollywood is no place for normal peoplersquoSharat Saxena 71Bear in mind his age when glancing at pictures of him toiling away at the gym and his relentless tryst to defy it becomes apparent Sitting across the screen as part of a videointerview Sharat Saxena looks the part when he says he must appear 45 despite being 71 to continue being appreciated in Bollywood The Sherni actorrsquos brush with bodybuilding traces back to his arrival in Mumbai to pursue his dreams of being a hero Only 69 kilos then he was still referred to as a ldquobody builder because the state of bodybuilding in India back then was so bleak that anyone with a small bump of muscle fell into that categoryrdquoAlso Read Fitness trainer Sahil Rasheed on Shweta Tiwari She was lean not fitWith bulkybodied men being easily stereotyped in the 70s and 80s Saxena knew his chances of being cast as hero were slim To find work as the antagonist building his frame became an inevitable requirement because ldquoheroes only wanted to beat up people who looked toughrdquo In the absence of professional help Arnold Schwarzeneggerrsquos Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding became his bible as hersquod train with weights at his PG accommodation coupling his routine with running sessions at Bandstand A boxing workshop with Mithun Chakraborthy as part of prepwork for a film served as a turning point in his fitness journey It opened his mind to training differently and readying himself for stuntsldquoWe didnrsquot have the luxury of having duplicates for our stunts I was expected to do mine because of how I was built I ended up in the hospital 13 times We also didnrsquot have things like protein shakes or steroids Irsquove built my body on dal roti sabzi For the first nine years of my journey Irsquod eat in hotels where Irsquod tell the cooks to make one roti of the four regular ones that theyrsquod serve and Irsquod have four such rotis Eggs bread cheese were our staplerdquoA lifetime has been spent following athletic routines based on oldschool practices but unlike his peers Saxena isnrsquot one to demean newage techniques that have refined the sport of bodybuilding ldquoIt is owing to these techniques that people can now become very big very fast In our days builders were not so big However had they been this size work for them would have been limitedrdquoSaxena doesnrsquot flinch when admitting that industry pressures are factors that continue to determine his routine ldquoTherersquos no workrdquo for a man with a belly because this industry is full of freaks ldquoWe are freakishly handsome freakishly ugly freakishly skinny or freakishly fat The industry is not a place for normal people You had to be in shape to find workrdquo But like his mind his body too has become resilient while adapting to meet demands ldquoWhen I was young a 20minute workout session would have me puking Today I train for two hours and still feel great Older hearts are athletic Like a muscle that has been nourished for years the heart too works efficiently when it has been consistently trainedrdquoHowever age hasnrsquot always been gracious He often negotiates with himself as he prepares his body to undergo the ldquostress of working outrdquo ldquoAs you grow old you have to work harder to maintain muscle size I didnrsquot have to train as much as I do today 20 years ago Also the shoulder muscles of the elderly deplete easily I have to train them more often If you donrsquot have big shoulders the bodyrsquos shape is not appealing To beat competition I have to look like 45 despite being 71rdquo02Number of hours Saxena trains dailyAlso Read Bhagyashree Raveena Tandon Madhoo Shah share their fitness secret