Enlarge Image
Salman Khan on lending his personal trainer to Aamir Khan
Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; July 6, 2016)

Enlarge ImageWhat came first? The announcement for Salman Khan’s Sultan or Aamir Khan’s Dangal? Doesn’t matter. What is important is which film releases first? Correct? Wrong again. What matters is the collections of these films about wrestlers, in the end. Sultan releases this week, Dangal at the end of the year. Both actors have spoken about how they trained for the film and what the extreme workout and food plan they put their bodies through for the making of this film. But what very few people know is that Salman lent his trainer to Aamir, while he worked out on his own. Here, for the first time, Salman talks about his big gesture.

You trained yourself for this physique you have made. While you sent your trainer to train Aamir Khan. Why?
Yes, I sent my trainer to Aamir. I am a big-hearted person! (Smiles) Rakesh, my trainer has worked with Aamir before. He’s comfortable with Rakesh because he knows him as he has trained with me. Aamir wanted him and when Rakesh asked me, I said go. Rakesh works out with me but most of the time, I work out alone.

Don’t you need someone to spot you when you are doing heavy weights though?
I have got my guys, my bodyguards and I have been weight-training for years, so I can train with them on the lookout. Aamir was at a very difficult position at that time and he needed someone to push him, motivate him and Rakesh is very good with that. So I asked him to go be with Aamir.

Why is it that when you transform your body people say that it is photo-shopped, but when Aamir’s reveals his look from the film, no one questions that?
I think it was photoshopped. The head wasn’t looking correct. Maybe, it wasn’t Photoshop but there was something very weird about the head. Photoshop would be a wrong word. The proportion was slightly wrong. My head looks bigger in that picture because of the angle in which the picture was taken. In fact, the kind of shape that I was in, during the film, is not the same shape you will see me in the movie. I will show you a picture. (He calls for his phone and he shows me six images of him working out at the YRF gym with a perfectly sculpted body) These gym pictures cannot be photoshopped. If there is anything that we should be accused of, it is un-photoshopping the pictures. We enhanced some more fat on my body because when we were shooting, I was really ripped. While fighting, I could not look so ripped because wrestlers are not built like that.