The actor trained in martial arts, flexibility and endurance and went off sugar, salt to go from lean in the first half to bulked-up in the later parts of his romantic-thriller
Hiren Kotwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 9, 2020)

For his turn as the protagonist in Mohit Suri’s Malang, Aditya Roy Kapur had to undergo an extreme makeover—while his character is lean in the first half of the film, the second half sees him in a bulked-up avatar.

Mohit, who is reuniting with his Aashiqui 2 hero after seven years with this Bhushan Kumar, Luv Ranjan and Jay Shewakaramani production, which also features Disha Patani, Anil Kapoor and Kunal Kemmu, says, “Aditya’s two looks can be defined as hippy—which is actually him off-camera—and the muscular hero. It’s easy if you have six months to go from one look to the next, but he has done it in two months, living without sugar and salt when we were shooting portions in which he had to look ripped. Then, he started eating all the time to be bigger; it’s a difficult job.”

As part of his prep, Aditya entrusted his fitness trainer, Sudarshan Amkar, to help him achieve the physicality of his character when he transforms into a compulsive killer. For the combat scenes, the actor took up training in martial arts, flexibility and endurance. “We would spend two-three hours in the gym every day. In the evenings, I suggested he do cardio for half-an-hour,” says Sudarshan, who also convinced Aditya to buy a treadmill, so he could get the cardio in at home.

The daily sessions would begin with stretches, followed by mobility and strength training. “We’d start the warmups with yoga, and to increase mobility we used Kalaripayattu and various forms of martial arts. Aditya would run for 20 minutes after every training session to improve stamina,” explains Sudarshan, adding that he ensured Aditya followed a strict nutrition plan.

— with inputs from Himesh Mankad