Yo-yo weight kings

You couldn’t blame one for assuming that Aamir’s pictures from his birthday on Monday, were a flash from a few years ago. For the actor bore little or no traces of the bloated character that he had been training for all these months. After stretching his waistline and levels of physical endurance the past few months, Aamir turned up lean and muscular for his cake-cutting yesterday. The actor was piling on kilos to play a wrestler, Mahavir Singh Phogat in the latter’s upcoming biopic, Dangal. And since the film follows his journey through life, Aamir had to shed it all off in a very short time to look like the younger Phogat.

The actor began shooting for Dangal towards the end of 2015 and at that time his weight was around 95 kilos — 25 kilos more than his regular weight. He had said then, “I am 95 kilos right now and that’s enough for the character. My breathing has changed. When I tie my laces, my stomach comes in between. After 20 seconds, I have to take a long breath. My mom and my wife are very worried about my health as they feel I am playing with it.”

Now that it’s time to play the younger Phogat, Aamir has swapped his white crop for jet black hair and more importantly is much, much lighter — 13 kilos to be precise — in just three weeks. Addressing the media he said, “I was in the US for three weeks — sleeping, eating and working out. I would exercise for almost six hours a day. I weigh 82 kilos now and I need to lose another 12 kilos. I am halfway there. The aim is to get the Ghajini look.” Aamir also mentioned that he quit smoking right at the start of this year.

There are others following extreme measures to fit into a certain onscreen character. Like Randeep Hooda preparing to essay Sarbjit in the biopic, Salman beefing up to play a wrestler in Sultan or Tapsee Pannu shedding weight to effectively play a refugee in Ghazi.

While it may seem like a daunting task for most people to swing between such extreme physical traits, it’s an occupational hazard for actors. Fortunately for them, they’re way more motivated too, points out celebrity dietician Pooja Makhija. “Celebrities’ real battle is to be away from home cooked meals because of their hectic travel schedules. The real challenge is when they shoot several scenes in different conditions and time zones. Two scenes in a village and the other two in mountains will surely affect their diet. All my Bollywood clients are bang on with their targets. Aamir, Kareena, all these actors are very character-driven. They eat according to the requirements of their roles — be it a leaner look or six-pack abs. The challenge is to resist the temptation to indulge when the entire production unit is having samosas during tea break on the sets, to win the mind games.”

Pooja on her part doesn’t endorse extreme conditioning of the body. “I have never asked anyone to stop eating. Not eating is not a solution. Eating is like giving fuel to the body. More fuel to the body is always good but giving appropriately is the main thing.”

Speaking of two of her very committed clients she continues, “It is not like that Deepika Padukone won’t eat a chocolate, but if whenever I tell her to resist, she does it head on. When I introduced vegetable juices to Ranbir Kapoor, he said couldn’t have it but now his day doesn’t isn’t complete without one glass of it.”

Actor Amit Sadh who also had a dramatic weight gain and loss for his films says, “I had to gain around 22kgs in Yaara and then I lost all that weight for Saat Kadam. So for two months, I ate everything from cheeseburgers to sweets and parathas and then went on a zero carb diet. I had to train harder, run more and take more proteins to get the six-pack abs too.”

His trainer Viraj Sarmalkar informs that as extreme as it seems, it is easier to shred weight that has been dramatically gained. “Amit had lost seven kilos in 3-4 days for a particular sequence in Kai Po Che, where he had to look very lean. I had put him on a fruit diet, which is the unhealthiest way to lose weight. Having said that, it is easier to lose weight that has been gained suddenly. If a fat person tries to lose weight the same way, it can be a lot more difficult. Amit had to gain around 22 kgs for Yaara and instead of gaining only fat, we gained muscle weight as well and looked broad.” Proud of his protégés he adds, “If I tell my Bollywood clients to eat only 100gms of something, they will only eat that much. But taking drastic measures is not healthy. If a role requires it then there isn’t anything you can do about it.”

Taapsee Pannu is an example. The actress is working on a distressed look for her upcoming film. She says, “I am required to look tortured and stressed refugee, like someone who has gone through a lot of physical wear and tear. I am eating enough to make sure that I weigh my minimum possible for that one month of shoot.”

It helps that celebrities have every thing and plan chalked out in excruciating detail. Samir Jaura who trained Farhan Akhtar for his athletic body in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag explains, “Everything is monitored. They are not doing it on their own. What type of food they will have, what exercises they will do, how much weight to gain and lose, everything is monitored. They hire experts for everything. They just follow instructions.” This often also means looking into the actor’s schedule and almost doubling up as a manager. “The person in charge has to figure out how much an actor can take. When I get involved I get into detailing like how much work the actor does, how much he shoots — like I did for Farhan in Bhag Milkha Bhag. This, apart from things like meetings of other movies, script readings — everything is noted down.”

Inputs from Rohit Bhatnagar and Asira Tarannum