Bear in mind his age when glancing at pictures of him toiling away at the gym, and his relentless tryst to defy it becomes apparent. Sitting across the screen as part of a video-interview, Sharat Saxena looks the part when he says he must appear 45, despite being 71, to continue being appreciated in Bollywood. The Sherni actor’s brush with body-building traces back to his arrival in Mumbai to pursue his dreams of being a hero. Only 69 kilos then, he was still referred to as a “body builder, because the state of body-building in India back then was so bleak that anyone with a small bump of muscle fell into that category”. 

With bulky-bodied men being easily stereotyped in the 70s and 80s, Saxena knew his chances of being cast as hero were slim. To find work as the antagonist, building his frame became an inevitable requirement, because “heroes only wanted to beat up people who looked tough”.

In the absence of professional help, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding became his bible, as he’d train with weights at his PG accommodation, coupling his routine with running sessions at Bandstand. A boxing workshop with Mithun Chakraborthy as part of prep-work for a film, served as a turning point in his fitness journey. It opened his mind to training differently, and readying himself for stunts. 

“We didn’t have the luxury of having duplicates for our stunts. I was expected to do mine because of how I was built. I ended up in the hospital 13 times. We also didn’t have things like protein shakes or steroids. I’ve built my body on dal, roti, sabzi. For the first nine years of my journey, I’d eat in hotels, where I’d tell the cooks to make one roti of the four regular ones that they’d serve, and I’d have four such rotis. Eggs, bread, cheese [were our staple].” 

A lifetime has been spent following athletic routines based on old-school practices, but, unlike his peers, Saxena isn’t one to demean new-age techniques that have refined the sport of body-building. “It is owing to these techniques that people can now become very big, very fast. In our days, builders were not so big. However, had they been this size, work for them would have been limited.” 

Saxena doesn’t flinch when admitting that industry pressures are factors that continue to determine his routine. “There’s no work” for a man with a belly, because this industry is full of freaks. “We are freakishly handsome, freakishly ugly, freakishly skinny, or freakishly fat. The industry is not a place for normal people. You had to be in shape to find work.”

But, like his mind, his body too has become resilient while adapting to meet demands. “When I was young, a 20-minute workout session would have me puking. Today, I train for two hours and still feel great. Older hearts are athletic. Like a muscle that has been nourished for years, the heart too works efficiently when it has been consistently trained.” 

However, age hasn’t always been gracious. He often negotiates with himself as he prepares his body to undergo the “stress of working out.” “As you grow old, you have to work harder to maintain muscle size. I didn’t have to train as much as I do today, 20 years ago. Also the shoulder muscles of the elderly deplete easily. I have to train them [more often]. If you don’t have big shoulders, the body’s shape is not appealing. To beat competition, I have to look like 45 despite being 71.”