Hyderabad-based fitness trainer Kunal Gir facilitated the filmmaker’s 19-kg weight-loss and is helping the actor beef up for an upcoming screen turn
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 20, 2017)

Karan Johar has been grabbing eyeballs with his dramatic transformation after losing 19 kg in four months. The man behind his makeover is Kunal Gir, his Ae Dil Hai Mushkil actor Ranbir Kapoor’s Hyderabad-based fitness trainer who has also been working with the underweight actor since a year-and-a- half to help him beef up for the upcoming Ayan Mukerji directorial, Brahmastra.

“Ranbir recommended me to Karan who is really disciplined and never complains about the diet or how tough the workout is. He is one of the busiest guys I’ve worked with but he makes it a point to train at least three times a week. When we first met, he admitted his dream was to lose 12 kg and fit into a T-shirt. He has surpassed his own target and still won’t give up,” Gir tells Mirror, adding that the filmmaker confidently wore a T-shirt to Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday party on November 2. “Before that, he would only wear jumpers and sweatshirts, among other baggy clothes.”

According to Gir, besides being fitter, KJo is also happier, and the weight loss has made managing his busy schedule easier too. “Karan would say, ‘I have two kids now and want to be healthy to look after them.’ He also wanted to stop overthinking about what to wear. My ultimate target for Karan is to have him walk on a beach shirtless,” the trainer asserts.

Prod him on Ranbir and his famous foodie Kapoor gene and Gir chuckles, “I had been working with Rana Daggubati and his body as Bhallaladeva in Baahubali was appreciated. Rana is good friends with Ranbir who was looking for somebody to train with at the time. He had already worked with several others but hadn’t got the physique he wanted. Rana and Ranbir are similar in a way that they don’t like to work too hard in the gym and enjoy their food and drink.”

The challenge with RK was to alter his lifestyle choices and get him to gain weight. “He’s not like Hrithik (Roshan) or Tiger (Shroff) who already have a toned physique. Ranbir was underweight at 70 kg for his 6’ft 1 inch frame. He is a good actor and would try everything possible to avoid workouts, eating for taste or because he was hungry. I had to get him to eat clean food,” Gir informs, adding that he’d been warned by the actor’s staff that he was known to leave the gym in 15 minutes. “But with me, Ranbir is working out for an hour or more for the first time in his life. Now he’s committed to fitness but initially he would down a few drinks and lie. When I caught him, he’d apologise.”

In Brahmastra, Ranbir plays a guy in his early 20s. They had a look test recently to see if his physique is on par with the character and Ayan was impressed with the results. “Ranbir is at his fittest after quitting smoking and drinking in the last one year, which is a big lifestyle change for him. He weighs around 86 kg now and that’s the biggest he’s ever been. I keep him motivated with a cheat meal here and there. He asks me to get Haleem from Hyderabad,” Gir signs off with a smile.

Upala KBR (DNA; April 13, 2017)

Kunal Gir has been shuttling between Hyderabad and Mumbai, training Ranbir Kapoor for two films — Ayan Mukerji’s Dragon and the Sanjay Dutt biopic directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The biopic director recently invited the celebrity trainer to his sets to oversee the gym shots. Dutt is a known gym addict and Hirani wanted to get the scenes perfectly done.

Confirms Gir, “Ranbir had mentioned to me well in advance that he would like to have me on the sets on the day those scenes get shot to ensure that his physique looked great. I was happy to oblige. I landed in Mumbai a night before the shoot date to make last minute diet changes, so Ranbir looked good the next day. We drove to the sets together.”

He continues, “RK went in for his make-up, while I checked out the gym setup. It was more like a shed that was actually an old gym. The setup was ideal. New-age equipment was quickly moved out for the sake of authenticity. Ranbir introduced me to ace cameraman Ravi Varman, who also hails from the South. A humble, extremely talented guy and he was open to ideas from me. Raju Sir arrived soon after. We had met a couple of times before. I quickly learned that both these people — Varman and Hirani had no egos. It was all about getting the best shot each time. If that meant, consulting with Ranbir’s coach, so be it.”

RK also took inputs from Gir on what to wear for the scenes. He reveals. “We shot a total of eight scenes total. Before each scene, I was asked to show what movement will be done, where and what kind of angles I would prefer. Next, Varman took over and made sure the camera angles, lights, etc, were set just right. He would then show it to me and check if it looked fine. Then Ranbir came and shot for it!”

Time flew by without him realising he had missed his 3 pm flight back to Hyderabad. “Before I knew it, it was 3.30 pm. We had started at 9 am, shot non-stop with just water breaks, while the scenes were getting set. I took a flight at 5 pm back, while Ranbir and the unit continued to shoot till 10 pm. Now that’s hard work. I can’t wait to see how the scenes look on the big screen,” concludes Gir.

How Ranbir Kapoor did it, with a little help from his friend Rana Daggubati and his trainer, Kunal Gir
Upala KBR (DNA; February 2, 2017)

It was Rana Daggubati’s beefy look for Baahubali 2 in a newspaper that caught Ranbir Kapoor’s attention. The lean RK was asked to bulk up as he plays Sanjay Dutt in the upcoming biopic, helmed by Rajkumar Hirani.

Rana reveals, “I introduced Kunal Gir to Ranbir, who is a friend and now, he has started training with him as well. Kunal is in Mumbai thrice a week training Ranbir and the rest of the days, in Hyderabad (where he resides).”

Kunal adds, “Initially, Ranbir wanted me on board for consultation and to train with someone else in Mumbai as I live in Hyderabad. I’d just guide him virtually. We met a couple of times and found that our wavelengths matched. Then, I started going to Mumbai and we’d have 16-18 sessions a month. It’s weight training with no cardio. Sanjay Dutt got his beefy look after years; for us to replicate that, naturally took some time.”

How RK bulked up
Ranbir will be seen in three distinct looks in the film — a beefy build, a lean look (the ’90s) and the time he was in drug rehab. The first shoot will have RK looking like how Dutt does now, after his release. The version with the skinnier look begins soon. Kunal says, “We couldn’t make Ranbir look that fat so we bulked him as much as we could with the help of prosthetics to make him look older. He has gained more than 13 kgs now which is all muscle and no fat. His waistline has gone down by an inch and he has been losing fat while building up. Ranbir has an hour-and-a-half of intense workout sessions. It’s a big challenge bulking Ranbir up like Sanjay, but the former is committed to doing whatever needs to be done. He wakes up at 3 am, has a protein shake and goes back to sleep.”

New diet direction
Ranbir’s diet was changed, too. Kunal says, “He has to eat a lot more than he used to. Earlier, Ranbir was a very small eater and predominantly, a meat eater. Now he eats a lot of vegetables. He had an erratic timetable and would eat only when he was hungry. Now he eats meals at proper times. His fast metabolism lets him get away with junk food, but I have made him skip all that. Now Ranbir eats healthy food, has frequent meals and lean meats like chicken and fish, which are grilled with specific oils. Both Rana and Ranbir have their meals cooked in macadamia oil, which I import from South Africa. It’s the best cooking oil. I have a cafeteria at my gym in Hyderabad, which provides meals to all my clients. Ranbir knew about it and sent his cook to Hyderabad twice to get trained by my chef in cooking healthy stuff.

‘Starving’ for second look
Ranbir will now need to lose weight for his second look. Kunal has a strategy ready for that. “We don’t provide the body with enough calories, so there’s catabolic shrinking without getting the surplus nutrients. The body is literally starving at this point. Yes, it’s very tough, but it’s for a couple of months. For the leaner phase, he will be needing more cardio sessions which will be for longer periods of time.”

Food-wise
Kunal finds RK to be a friendly star and a big foodie. “I carry haleem (a porridge with lentils and mutton) every other weekend for him as he loves to eat that. If I don’t get that, he gets upset. I am the haleem messenger boy now for him,” he adds, laughing.

Ranbir’s grandmother Krishna Raj Kapoor had invited them all over for a meal which consisted of a rich Mughlai spread of biryani, paaya, junglee gosht etc. So does Ranbir have his cheat days and eat that? “No. He ate it that day. He doesn’t have cheat days, but a good meal every Saturday night and a couple of drinks.”

Kunal says training Rana for Baahubali 2 and Ranbir for the Dutt biopic were two different things. “Both have different structures. Rana is a broad built guy with a wide back and shoulders, but smaller chest and arms. So we had to focus only on his arms and chest and never touched his back and chest whereas with Ranbir, it was not like that. He has never trained much before. While he was lean and fit, he has never buffed up, so he trained like a beginner.”