•  
  • Page of 1 Go
  •  
Posted: 1 years ago

Bollywood’s Hot Boys and Girls

How six-packs became a religion in the world’s largest film industry.

MICHAELA STONE CROSS

August 21, 2019

GIFT STORY FOR FREE


Madhumati (1985) featured yesteryears heartthrob, Dilip Kumar.

The year was 1998. In America, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google. In Europe, state officials were planning for the launch of the Euro. And in India, something happened that changed the country forever: Salman Khan took off his shirt to reveal abs.  

The movie was Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998), the song, “O O Jaane Jaana.” Khan was astonishing the audience not with his ability to play an electric guitar without a chord, but with his throbbing, glistening biceps. 

Uska body,” a woman selling fish told me, explaining why Salman Khan is her favorite hero of all time. Ask women throughout Mumbai and you’ll hear “Salman” again and again. They love his “attitude,” they love his “style,” they love it when he takes off his shirt. 

Salman Khan is the Jekyll-and-Hyde of Bollywood, as well known for his alter-ego “Prem” (“love”) and charity work as he is for killing pedestrians (his driver, in line with Mumbai tradition, took the fall). Ten years before Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya came out, Khan was one of India’s “chocolate boys,” a term that has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with sweetness and a slim physique. But over 30 years of bodybuilding — and, rumor has it, steroid use — have transformed not only Salman, but also the whole Bollywood industry. Gone are the days of Raj Kapoor’s double-chin, of Dilip Kumar’s aloo-fed dialogues. (Today's Bollywood actor will lay off potatoes six months before filming.)  

Bodybuilding in India is older than the modern country — it was in 1924 that Manohar Aich, the father of Indian bodybuilding, began lifting weights. Muscle gained widespread popularity when it hit the film industry: Indian audiences were just as impressed by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bulging biceps as Americans were. But the craze with muscles didn’t spread to Bollywood immediately. Old-school Bollywood heroes tended to be soft-featured, baby-faced, and mostly covered-up. The old momma’s boy look went out with the arrival of the “angry young man” of the 70s — heroes such as Amitabh Bachchan were leaner and meaner and helped pave the way for the 80s and 90s action-hero type. 


Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (2008)

Western influence eventually trickled down. Salman was the first to really start stripping before the camera, and shirts have been flying off ever since. He even trained Hrithik Roshan, the “Greek God of Bollywood.”

“There was this movie, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai,” said Sourish Dam Roy, a fitness instructor in Mumbai, recalling why he started working out. “Hrithik had a great physique; he was really ripped. I was like, ‘Wow, how do I get a body like that?’”

Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000) introduced Hrithik Roshan, along with a phrase that soon sunk into the Hindi language: “six-pack.” The movie features Hrithik gyrating in a see-through mesh shirt, setting the new standard. Now it wasn’t just biceps you needed: it was abs. 

“There was only one gym, in Bandra,” said fitness expert Deanne Pandey, a celebrity trainer who’s trained the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham. “And there were only a few trainers back then: Mickey Mehta, Leena Mongre, and me.”


"Swacch Bharat, Fit Bharat," Salman Khan captioned on Instagram. (Salman Khan)

There are now hundreds. A search on gym aggregator Fitternity shows 915 outlets in Mumbai alone. They range from big brand names like Gold’s to gimmicky boutiques like Qi Gym, which features low oxygen density to improve cardiovascular efficiency. Gyms are also where Bollywood celebrities hang out — such as Bandra's iThinkFitness. Gym memberships cost anywhere from ₹2,000 to ₹7,000 ($28 to $98) a month. Personal trainers can range from ₹500 to ₹5,000 ($7 to $70) a session. In India’s most expensive city, people are paying to bulk up. 

In 2003, what seemed like a trend became a standard, when John Abraham, a former top model, hit the scene. The modeling industry — which holds to Western standards even more than Bollywood — had been a major source of Bollywood actresses, but Abraham was one of the first men to make the switch. He starred in a movie called Jism (2003) — “body.” And if that title doesn’t clue you in, yes, Abraham did take his shirt off, revealing a glistening six-pack. 

It was a hit. 

“I am pretty much an agnostic so my body is my religion,” wrote Abraham in a 2017 blogpost. “I think there is nothing more important than health and workout and my aim is to live and die with a six-pack.”

Abraham wasn’t the only one worshipping his six-pack. Soon enough, Bollywood celebrities were converting left and right. Shah Rukh Khan, who had spent two decades claiming he was an actor, not a bodybuilder, raised eyebrows in 2007 when he showed up with a suspiciously defined six-pack for a 42-year-old in Om Shanti Om

That same year Salman got both a six-pack, and a belly ring piercing. The stakes had clearly risen. 

“Six-packs are very difficult to maintain,” said Pandey. “Many actors start only six months before their movie. They do it so drastically, and that’s why they get many injuries. And they are pressured into taking a lot of supplements.”


Jai Ho (2014)

Most actors choose crash diets and crash workouts rather than consistently maintaining their six-pack. The reason is simple: they want to be happy.

“Boiled eggs, boiled chicken,” said Gaurav Nautiyaal, when I asked him what he ate to maintain his six-pack. “Not too much spice. Mostly everything boiled.”

“You’re not accepted in society if you don’t have a six-pack,” said another actor, Sharad Jagtiani. “You don’t focus on your acting. Instead, you just go to the gym day and night. Young actors are choosing their looks and six-packs over their overall development. They are not well-rounded, personally or spiritually.”

This sounds like an exaggeration to me until I talk to enough six-pack possessors. They tend to speak either like conversion-happy evangelicals or in a tone as bland and sparse as their food. I ask one Instagram actor what the ideal body type for male actors is these days. He responds with one word: “Yoga.”

I ask him to elaborate. He does not.

The year 2007 proved to everyone in the film industry how much the new look had become a necessity. That year, Ranbir Kapoor showed off his abs in Saawariya (2007). The following year, 43-year-old Aamir Khan shed his brainy reputation to buff up for Memento-ripoff Ghajini (2008). A year later, Shahid Kapoor went from chocolate-boy to gym rat for his role in Kaminey (2009). 


Aamir Khan in Ghajini (2008)

The transformations were rapid, almost disturbingly so. For Dangal (2016), Aamir took only five months to transform his overweight uncle-bod to that of a wrestler. Actors such as Aamir, Shah Rukh, and Salman are in their 50s, and therefore have lower testosterone levels. This means they need help to put on muscle: supplements, steroids, and even CGI. 

“The average Indian body is not built for six-packs,” said Pandey. Studies have shown that Indians are genetically pre-disposed to abdominal fat. “So they have to take a lot of supplements. And they’re intelligent enough to do it because there’s a lot of money riding on their name.” 

“Whoever has done steroids, you can get a sense,” said Roy. “In this short period, you cannot look so jacked.” 

In 2012, Salman’s reputation took a hit when a disgruntled employee released a before-and-after video of a flabby-stomached Salman turned washboard through CGI. The director of Ek Tha Tiger (2012) had deleted the scene from the final cut of the film — only for the actor to protest that his fans would be disappointed. That’s when the movie team turned to computer graphics to de-flab Salman’s stomach. 

By 2014, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan were 53. They did not just maintain their six-packs — they gained two more. Now, they had eight-packs. 

As of 2019, John Abraham’s prayer to die with a six-pack seems to have been answered. The boy-next-door has turned into the bodybuilder-next door, and even extraterrestrials like Aamir Khan’s character in PK (2014) are expected to boil their chicken to nail those shirtless scenes. Ranveer Singh, who made his acting debut with Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), is now the new poster child of abs. “Extra gluten, please,” Singh captioned a shirtless picture on Instagram. 


"Extra gluten please," captioned Ranveer Singh. (Ranveer Singh)

Women, too, have signed up for the trend. Deepika Padukone, who is married to Singh and started acting after playing competitive badminton in her teens, often posts workout and fashion pictures that showcase her abs on Instagram. Kareena Kapoor lost her pregnancy belly-fat just months after giving birth and has turned into an Instagram fitness guru, posting videos of her process. It’s even rumored that Katrina Kaif gave up water for her abs in Baar Baar Dekho (2016).

Salman has found new ways to capitalize on the trend. He’s started a line of bodybuilding equipment, and even used the election as a chance to promote his abs. 

Chilling and watching the news,” Khan wrote on Instagram. “Swachch Bharat Fit Bharat.”

The fitness craze is a sort of religion. Those in the spotlight are probably faking their piety. But walking through Mumbai’s working-class neighborhoods, girls — especially teenagers — are talking about “six-packs.” Only a Rajasthani farmer in her 80s has something different to say.

“I miss Dilip Kumar.”

Michaela Stone Cross is a freelance writer from Philadelphia. She currently lives in Mumbai, where she spends most of her time trying to explain why she's there. She's written for several publication, including VICE.

Posted: 1 years ago

How come I had to endure two topless photos of Salman and one topless photo of Aamir, but I get no topless photo of John Abraham? 

Image

Posted: 1 years ago

Sanjay Dutt started the trend even before Salman 

  1  

Related Topics

doc-text Topics pencil Author stackexchange Replies eye Views clock Last Post Reply
Movies that were too good for Bollywood and Bollywood didn't deserve

pencil Witchofthewest   stackexchange 31   eye 5368

Witchofthewest 31 5368 2 months ago RaniPreityAish
The Boys Are Back In Town

pencil Maroonporsche   stackexchange 61   eye 2499

Maroonporsche 61 2499 1 months ago Clochette
Boys Vs Girls

pencil Zeal17   stackexchange 0   eye 213

Zeal17 0 213 6 months ago Zeal17
Bollywood CC # 116

pencil Minionite   stackexchange 1524   eye 53258

Minionite 1524 53258 22 days ago WildestDreams
Who can win Oscar from Bollywood?

pencil pankaj1234512   stackexchange 0   eye 85

pankaj1234512 0 85 a month ago pankaj1234512

Topic Info

3 Participants 2 Replies 383Views

Topic started by mintyblue

Last replied by 2RsFan

loader
loader
up-open TOP