Itishree Misra (BOMBAY TIMES; February 23, 2020)

Supermodel, actor and now a fitness icon, Milind Soman recently visited Lucknow as the brand ambassador of a half marathon. He was accompanied by his wife, Ankita Konwar.

Ask him why he is off the screen these days, and he says that although he’s not off TV or films, he is doing less of it. He says, “Whenever I find the time, I do some acting. I am doing some series for the web, plus there’s also my show in which I am the judge, so there’s plenty happening on that front. I can’t be an actor for 300 days in a year. After 40-50 days, it becomes difficult to manage the time and the dates. I can’t give my weekends because then I’m mostly travelling. So, to only be able to give weekdays and then also say that I can’t give more than 20 days in a month, I feel is not fair to the makers. I’ll do maybe one project in a year. But theatre and theatrical movies have become less, because people want one to be there whenever they are called, which I am not, most of the times.”

The 53-year-old married 28-year-old Ankita Konwar in April 2018. The couple often shares pictures on social media. The two are also active running partners. Talking about his marriage, Milind says, “Married life has been amazing. I would say nothing much has changed, except that now I don’t take decisions based on my own desires. Once you get married, you have to think about the other person as well. You have to take them into confidence and discuss things with them.”

Ask him if he plans to go the family way, and he says, “I don’t have any plans to extend the family, but Ankita definitely does. We do discuss about having a baby, so let’s see.”

A champion for the cause of fitness and running, Milind says that his inspiration is his mom, Usha Soman, who is 74 years old and still participates in several marathons. “Not just me, my mother has inspired so many people. I, too, am amazed about how she has managed her whole life, and now, she’s into fitness,” says Milind adding that when it comes to fitness, age is no bar. “It’s all in the mind. If you decide to do it, you can. In fact, we had an event in Bengaluru called the Grandmother’s 10K, which was a 10-kilometre run only for grandmothers. That was a huge success, and it was inspiring because you look at grandmoms differently then. Normally, you see senior citizens walking or perhaps jogging, but when you think of grandmothers, you think of them as sitting at home, making achaar or knitting, you don’t think of them running in marathons. The whole idea is to break the mindset that you can’t do certain things after you cross a certain age. If you want to, you can and you must. We also had the Sari Runs where women were running on the streets in saris. So, it’s all about going beyond these mental taboos and stereotypes; most of these limitations are in the mind, very few are physical or material difficulties.”