When you are known as Mr Perfectionist, there are a few challenges that seem impossible to achieve, even if you are Aamir Khan. At first, it seemed as if the actor had finally met his match, but he proved everyone wrong. Aamir had to portray the various stages of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat's life in Dangal, a biopic directed by Nitesh Tiwari.
The logical thing would have been to shoot the young stages first and maybe put on a body suit for the rest. But not if you are Aamir Khan. According to him, there isn't any fun in that. Mr Perfectionist told the director that he wanted to put on weight and act out the old, overweight Mahavir and later shed off the extra weight to play the fitter and younger days of the wrestler. The journey was captured on film and recently released on social media. There times when even Aamir lost hope but at the end of it, he emerged with a body fit enough to compete with younger actors.
“Though I went through body building to get a certain look for my film, this (Dangal) one was one of the most dramatic body transformations so far. The film has two phases. For one part, I had to put on weight. So, I weighed 96 kgs with 38 percent body fat and that I had to reduce to 9 percent body fat within five months. That was a huge task,” Aamir said as he believes this transformation to be the most dramatic one in his career.
He added: “I would like to mention that putting on weight and losing it so fast is very unhealthy. I did it for my film under the supervision of experts, but it is very unhealthy for any regular person.”
When asked why he didn't using a bodysuit to play the character, the actor replied, “When you put on weight, it affects your breathing and body language. That naturally reflects on your performance. You cannot get that from a bodysuit.”
He talked about the fabulous time he had when putting on weight: “I ate everything that I was not supposed to eat otherwise. I had samosa, vada pav, chocolate, cakes, brownies… I indulged in everything. Then when I had to lose the weight, I had a very different diet of 25 gms of upma and papaya. After gym, a glass of protein shake.”
Aamir Khan will be seen as Mahavir Singh Phogat, father of wrestler Geeta Phogat (winner of India's first ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in 2010). The biopic is set to release on December 23.
Source: The Indian Express