Gayathri Menon (HINDUSTAN TIMES; May 3, 2020)

Fitness enthusiast Milind Soman has trained himself to never crave for a cheat day. However, the actor-model, 54, says that staying fit during the Coronavirus pandemic is challenging and required adjustments to his regular routine. He says, “I prefer exercising in open spaces. However, I have taken up stair-climbing to substitute for running. I keep myself occupied by learning something new, such as cooking, or imagining positive post-lockdown scenarios.”

His wife and mother also join him in exercising indoor. “We work out on the terrace and do basic movements such as push-ups, skipping, hopping, etc. Engaging in positive activities with family is also good for your mental health,” he says. It’s tempting to binge-eat when stuck at home, but Soman has a way out. He suggests substituting unwholesome foods with healthy snacking options such as fruits or nuts. “My go-to snack is almonds,” he adds. When asked about the first thing he will do once the lockdown ends, he says, “I’d love to go for a very long run as running gives me the utmost satisfaction.”

Milind teaches you how to become the physical genius that he is
Sonia Lulla (MID-DAY; March 4, 2020)

Milind Soman asks us to do 10 push-ups for a selfie. We ask him to join us, insisting it will make for a better grab for this piece. He refuses. He’s too cool for ‘regular’ push-up. “If I do it, we’ll have to do clap pushups,” he sets conditions.

We give it a shot, fail, and blame the deceptive flooring for being too slippery. Arms tucked into the pockets of his hoodie, he seems all too comfortable to even lift a finger. “I’m the laziest person,” he announces at one point in this conversation, and follows it with clichés such as “Everyone can run a marathon”, “I’m addicted to fitness”, and even gems like “Have you seen my body in the Made In India video? It’s amazing!”

There’s abundant tomfoolery going on at this interaction, or so we believe it would. Not because we didn’t intend to take this seriously, but because we had read so much about Soman’s fitness journey that we wondered if he would perhaps even have anything more to say. After cracking the eulogised Ironman challenge (3.86 km swim, 180.25 km bicycle ride and 42.20 km run) in 2015, and giving a spate of interviews describing his fitness routine, he went on to complete the Ultraman, which made the former look, well, ‘cute’. It comprised a 10 km swim, 424 km bike ride and 84 km run. So we only begin with what seems to be the most obvious question we can: “Which question pertaining to fitness are you most tired of answering?” Pat comes his reply, “All”. It’s decided: we’re heading nowhere.

Only, emerging from this chat with the fitness icon, Soman has shattered several pre-conceived notions we’d harboured about people who could achieve the incredulous feats that he has. (Read: It’s not just good genes!) If you want your kids to be like him, here’s what you need to do:

To build men of steel, get kids into sports early
Long before Soman covered distances on foot, he did so under water. “At nine years of age, I was swimming at the international level. By the time I was 23, I was swimming 65 kilometres a week. That’s a lot! I don’t even run that much each week now. But that kind of training had me develop a level of fitness and conditioning that I could carry forward in my life. For all these years, till the age of 23, I was at the peak of my physical fitness, each year. And because I had this extraordinary training, my conditioning and mental state emerged to be such that it took a long time for it to deteriorate.”

After giving up training at 23, Soman didn’t invest in physical activity till the age of 37. “I stopped exercising in 1988, and shot Made In India in 1995. Between the years, I did not exercise at all. But, look at my body in the video, it’s amazing. It took 17 years after I stopped swimming to feel the need to exercise again. At 37, I realised there is a problem. Now, I’ve been running for 17 years, and what I’ve accumulated in 17 years through running, both physically and mentally, will not be forgotten by my body, even if I don’t do anything for a long time again.”



Follow your passion, is still great advice
Of course, Soman’s awe-inspiring abilities are the result of abundant hours put into his training, right from his childhood.

But, would his devotion to fitness be as earnest as it is had he not been as good as he was in athletics? He believes, it’s questionable. “Sports taught me a lot, but also, the fact is that I would win. I was a national champion. It wasn’t like I was at the 100th spot, and then had to gradually work my way to the top. I was at the top, and hence, I had to find competition within myself and build a greater sense of self-awareness about things like my strokes, what I was eating, and how I was thinking, to get better. Had I been terrible at sports, it wouldn’t have helped me. Being good helped me get better, it made me understand what success and sustainability meant. So, it’s important to find things you’re good at; regardless of whether that is commercially important. If you are good at it, do it, because you will explore life through it. It’s connected to everything, whether you run a business, or choose to dance.”

Never go without a goal
Soman says there is an average of 1.5 lakh individuals who give a go at the seemingly onerous Ironman challenge each year. But even those who complete it shiver at the thought of the Ultraman. “Why is that the case? From 1.5 lakh, the number falls to 150 at the Ultraman. People tell me, only I can do it. The guy who finished before me was 67, with only one leg. So what’s the problem of a person who is 45 with two legs? It’s all about what you believe.”

The process to creating a mind that “believes” such feats are possible can also be broken down into actionable tasks. For Soman, that is goal-setting. “I got into the mind-space where I could believe I could do anything after my first half-marathon at 37. People said I wouldn’t be able to do it. I said, okay. I trained for four months, and completed it easily. So, I realised that I don’t need to think anything will be hard; I just need to prepare for it. Running is a mental tool. When I realised that, I said I must take up more challenges. Any challenge you choose is a tool to become better at life, which is always throwing unpredictable things at you, via stresses at your job or family life. To be mentally and emotionally capable of dealing with it, you need to train your emotional and mentally well- being by throwing challenges at yourself. There is a debate on if a marathon is healthy, since it puts great pressure on organs. It’s not healthy. But it is necessary because it’s a fantastic exercise for the mind.”

Soman on his diet
The discussion around carbohydrates, fats and proteins has begun in India only over the last five years. Fifty years ago, people simply ate whatever was available. I eat whole foods and let my body decide what it needs and what it must get rid of. It is way more capable than I am of deciding that. Calories are not important, the quality of the calories is. Hence, foods like almonds are essential. Refined sugar has empty calories, but sugarcane juice is loaded with micro-nutrients, minerals and vitamins. One will only spike your insulin level, the other can enhance your performance. So, whole foods are important.

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.”

An RSS student, national-level swimmer, supermodel, chain smoker, marathoner and (practically) every woman's fantasy, Milind Soman recalls the many lives he has chased in a just-released memoir
Jane Borges (MID-DAY; January 12, 2020)

The last time we saw Milind Soman was at Marine Drive four years ago, on a Sunday morning. His running shorts and tee clinging to his body, he sprinted past onlookers, some of them sizing him up. This writer had just begun to actively use her feet. It was the only time, Soman and she had something in common.

When we meet the former model, actor and now marathoner at his Santa Cruz East office, a lot has changed. At 32, we can barely run—the excuse is our collapsing body. Fifty four-year-old Soman is still hanging in there, like the solid branch of an ageing tree. There is reason to be in awe. But, we have decided we won't fawn. Fresh from reading his memoir, Made In India (Penguin Random House), where he writes, "no interview with a female journalist... has ever begun without her first saying something complimentary about my looks," we are determined to keep things different.

And yet, when Soman shows up 25 minutes after the scheduled 2 pm time, in distressed jeans and a jacket with popped collar, requesting another 10 minutes, we thaw—generously obliging. When he is back, we say nothing about his looks, and congratulate him on the book, which he has co-written with Roopa Pai.

Publishing house Penguin had approached Soman years ago, to write his story. But he recalls dragging his feet. "I had no struggle [to speak of]. Or at least the kind, that would have shaped my life [or merited a book]. What would I talk about?"

It was Raga Olga D'silva, friend and co-founder of his firm, Speaking Minds—which provides a range of motivational speakers to corporate clients—who convinced him to write. Pai came on board, because Soman, who says he is fairly new to social media, chanced upon her post on his Facebook timeline. "I read stories she had written about sportspersons, who were representing India at the Olympics. They were very short, but the essence of their personalities was apparent. I was very inspired. I later went to her page and read all her stories," he says. At the time, Soman didn't know that Pai was a published author. The memoir is the result of lengthy interviews between the two.

Soman speaks of a childhood spent in London and later Bombay, the indulgences that come with modelling, and a new lease of life as a marathoner. The book has moments of self-introspection, as most memoirs are wont to. Soman, who seems like to like giving credit where due, says that Pai did a good job at vocalising his thoughts. "It sounds like me."


With mother Usha; 2019

It's most likely that he has excluded important chapters from his life, "just because I couldn't remember them". "I live in the moment. My wife [Ankita Konwar] tells me that I have a bad memory... all wives say that," he says, plainly. "But yes, I don't remember things that I did yesterday or even last week. So for me, to think what I 20 years ago, wasn't exciting. The highest point of my life so far was in 1984, when I won my first national [swimming] championship. I was 18. I think, nothing has exceeded that feeling, although I have done so much since. That's a bit sad."

Soman moved to Mumbai, as an eight year old, in 1973. While he felt like an "outlier", because he spoke with a British accent, he writes glowingly of his childhood—one that involved rigour and discipline. He was training to be a professional swimmer, and would eventually go on to represent India at the The South Asian Games. But, growing up in the Maharashtrian neighbourhood of Shivaji Park meant walking in the light of the rest. His father, an employee of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, who he calls Baba, enrolled him in the local RSS shakha, because he was a "great believer in the benefits that would accrue to a young boy, in terms of disciplined living." Soman remembers it as a fun experience. "I talk about everything as being fun," he laughs. "But the RSS then, was all about games and exercises. Discipline was also a big thing—that you have to listen, be obedient, respect your parents and elders. We also learned stick fighting and attended camps. It wasn't religious, dogmatic, racist or negative," he says, admitting that he is a "little surprised" when he reads reports concerning the social organisation today. "I don't discount it. I didn't study their philosophy or what their mission was. For me, it was a good experience. And the people I was with, were good people."

As a 21-year-old, his life took a dramatic turn, when following a tiff with his Indian coach, his name was not considered for the 1986 Asian Games. It's the one thing he regrets. "I would have loved to represent India. I think it was my fault [arguing]. I should have been smarter. It's always about how you deal with a situation. I didn't deal with it correctly," he says.

In between 1986—the year he considered giving up professional swimming—and 2009, Soman became the poster-boy of Indian modelling, a gay icon, an actor, film and television producer and successful full marathon runner. Nothing, however, brought him more joy, than the dismissal of a case in November 2009, against him and former girlfriend Madhu Sapre for the infamous Tuff shoes advertisement, where the two had posed in the buff. He points out in the book that the ad would have gone unnoticed, had it not been for an article in this very paper on July 23, 1995, which reproduced the image of the ad, with an article on the controversy. "That was when the s**t really hit the fan," he writes. The court battle dragged on for 14 years.


With Madhu Sapre; 2006

The modelling years may have brought Soman stardom, but it's also the first time that he threw caution to the wind. Alcohol, drugs and smoking, became commonplace. It's that one time when aai, his mother Usha, who until then had been supportive of his choice of career to his girlfriends, disapproved. "She has always been there. She is a solid backbone. It's not like she ever told any of us [Milind and his three sisters] what to do. She just led by example. Also, I don't listen to people, even if it's my mother. And she respects that," he says. "Yes, she was against alcohol and tobacco; all mothers are. But I was at that phase of my life, where I was surrounded by people who encouraged it. I used to drink a lot. I'd come home drunk and she would be horrified. But, I never smoked or drank at home. I didn't want to make it worse for her," he says. He admits to smoking 30 cigarettes a day. "I was that stupid, yes." But because of the subconscious guilt about smoking—his father was a hard smoker—he says he never actually bought himself a single cigarette through those years. "I have an addictive obsessive personality, but I am able to get in and out without scarring myself. I try whatever there is to try."

A year after the annual Mumbai Marathon launched in 2004, marked another chapter for Soman. It was like going back to his childhood, he says. He continued doing the half marathons annually for the next five years, before he took the full plunge. While he completed the race in 4 hours 47 minutes and 44 seconds, he collapsed a few kilometres from the finish line. "That was the only time I really struggled to achieve something. It was because of overconfidence. I had been running for five years, and was cocky and arrogant. I didn't allow myself to understand what it meant to run 42 km. It was a great learning experience."

In 2015, he competed in the Ironman Triathlon, "widely considered the world's toughest one-day sporting event." Participants have to complete a 3.86-kilometre swim, a 180.25-kilometre bicycle ride and a full marathon (42.2 kilometres), successively, and in that order, in under 17 hours. Two years on, he completed Ultraman, a three-day-long mega triathlon, which he says was scarier than Ironman. "At 38, I had thought finishing a half-marathon would be difficult. At 52, I knew becoming an Ultraman was easy," he writes in the book.

Memoirs are meant to be tell-all. But Soman, despite showing no restrain when exposing his vulnerabilities, including his love-hate relationship with his father whose volatile temperament worried him, refused to discuss or dwell on the relationships with his girlfriends, except for Sapre, which was public knowledge, his first wife Mylène Jampanoi and Konwar. "I skipped it deliberately. People didn't know about a lot of my girlfriends, and I didn't want to suddenly bring it out, and create some issues for them. It happened so many years ago, and they have their own lives. I didn't want to call all of them up, and ask, 'Hey, should I tell them our story?'. I also felt it wasn't important to write about them."

Having said that, he loved the attention he has received from women. A soothsayer, after reading his palm, had told his mother that he would be surrounded by ladies. "It's the truth. It's not that I don't get along with men, but I prefer the company of women. I like being with them. I have learnt a lot from the women I have been with, whether my mother, sisters, girlfriends, business partners or wives." And then corrects himself: "Wife."


With Anusha Dandekar; 2003

Konwar, who he married in April 2018, is at the office when we meet him. She doesn't interrupt the interview, but agrees for a quick picture, when asked. The two met at a nightclub, and for Soman it was almost, love at first look. "I thought this girl was amazing." But he didn't want to appear like a "predatory Casanova", a description he says is wrongly attributed to him, so he took it slow. They went out on a date two weeks later. He jokes about how "traumatic" the whole wedding talk was. "When we met for the first time, we had this chat about marriage and kids, and we both agreed that it was not for us. And I was like, 'yay!'. But a couple of years later, her sister got married, and she said, 'oh! It would be so nice to get married.' And I said, 'excuse me!' It kept cropping up again. Eventually, I got around to it," he says. "But it's been wonderful. I am really happy that we did it. We do everything together, and I think, it has worked well for us," Soman ends, as we get into the elevator, for another round of pictures in the outdoors. The marathoner poses like he is on a ramp, and taking a look at the pictures in the DSLR, he admires his own face: "How good I look?"

And we break our wow. "Of course!"

QUICK 5

- His first girlfriend was called Anne. They were both five and in the same class at a London kindergarten.
- His favourite escapist fantasy as a child was Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes.
- He has read at least 200 Mills & Boon romances as a teenager.
- He hasn't used shaving foam, cologne, sunblock or soap, in over 10 years.
- When the concept of Alisha Chinai's Made In India indipop video was first explained to him, he thought it "unbelievably tacky".

Milind Soman On Tweets About Milind Soman

@dhaniyawaad: Milind Soman is so hot that I can cook biryani on him
I really hope @dhaniyawaad is a girl. Not that I want her to cook biryani on me.

@sup_3:Don't blame climate change! Milind Soman is directly responsible for global warming!
I am not. It's really bad, and I can't be responsible for what's bad.

@Shakti_Shetty: Milind Soman can actually justify sending "Running late" emails to his colleagues
Laughs.

@iamdatemike: At one point I also wanted to date Milind Soman, but then I saw the amount of exercise it involved
Thank god.

@LOLrakshak: I have a lot of questions about the Milind Soman-Ankita wedding. Like who reached the mandap first, Milind or the horse?
Funny. Funny. Funny. There was no horse.


Watching a selfie seeker pay the customary price, do push-ups; 2018


Running the Mumbai Marathon; 2007


Soman and Ankita Konwar

Purnima Shah (BOMBAY TIMES; July 31, 2018)

Last weekend, actor and fitness promoter Milind Soman was in Chennai for The Saree Run With Milind, a Pinkathon event, where women in their best saris came to run along with him. On both the days that he was here, he also ran with Divya, a partially visually impaired girl who will be running from Puducherry to Chennai next month. Milind took some time off from his packed running schedule to talk about the things that are close to his heart. Excerpts...

‘Running has become a movement’
When I started Pinkathon, I never thought I would see so many people running. There were many running events, but only a few women were participating in them. I strongly felt the need for a space for women runners since there wasn’t any platform like that. When the participation started increasing, we decided to take it to other cities, and in every city we went, the enthusiasm was really inspiring.

‘It was surprising to know that no one was ready to invest in a run for women’
There aren’t many women-only events. Sponsors used to tell me that women are just not the market for them; the reason being women are not decisions takers in their homes. It was surprising to learn those aspects as how products are sold in India and what brands believed of themselves.

‘Walked more than 300 km; had a barefoot wedding in the woods’
Ankita and I always wanted a barefoot wedding in the woods, so we went on a long trip to Portugal and Spain, where we walked together more than 300 km. It was great fun to just walk, something I have never done before. Some days, we walked the entire day. We went through more than a hundred towns and villages, through fields, forests and the countryside. I had never done that before. It was too special for all of us, even for Ankita. For me, walking is more difficult than running because it’s a different set of muscles and movement. By the fourth day, my whole body was aching. We were walking between 15 and 30 km every day. My mother was better because she walks daily, and does a lot of trekking, too, but for me and Ankita, it was a little uncomfortable, but we got used to it.”

There’s buzz that you and Ankita are likely to enter Bigg Boss 12?
Well, nobody has approached me yet for Bigg Boss and I have no idea when this happened. I don’t know why they are even coming up with names that are not confirmed. It’s always like that, they randomly choose names and put it up.

‘Smoking is acceptable and available and that’s why we don’t see any wrong in it’
I quit smoking in 2003. Smoking is an addiction, and we also know that it can kill you. And going by my personal experience, I can say that a smoker lives only 40 per cent of his or her life. So, why would you want to do that? I don’t think it’s worth it; smoking takes away too much from your life and I have felt that personally. It was those days when I just started acting in television where people of my age group used to smoke a lot. Cigarettes were cheap, so, people used to offer it to everybody. Those 10 years, I never bought a single cigarette, but used to smoke more than 30 cigarettes a day. From just one drag to addiction, I didn’t realise when it started to take the whole of me. I was so arrogant about my fitness and discipline that I didn’t see how I was harming myself. Cigarettes are the worst form of addiction. The problem is, it is acceptable in the society — if someone smokes, no one calls him or her an idiot, and also, it is easily available. The only tip would be, keep saying no, and eventually it works.

Letty Mariam Abraham (MID-DAY; December 28, 2017)

Not many would associate fitness enthusiast Milind Soman with a vice that takes a toll on health. Fifteen years after the avid smoker kicked the butt to adopt a healthier lifestyle, he took six individuals, still struggling with the addiction, on a journey to remember. The actor-turned-philanthropist, 52, talks to mid-day about the web show, I Can, You Can, which follows six smokers as they trek to the Everest base camp. Soman leads this pack of individuals, who, despite their addiction, are relatively fit.

What convinced you to work on the show?
I jumped at the opportunity to shoot a trek-based show when BBC Worldwide offered it to me. They stated it would follow six people, who had, or continue to battle the addiction of smoking. Three of them want to give it up, while the others had quit a while ago. It chronicles their journey to the Everest base camp. I thought it would be interesting. And I was right; it was brilliant seeing them overcome challenges.

How was your journey of travelling with them?
First, we went to Kathmandu, and then took a flight to Lukla. We made our journey to the Everest base camp in about 14 days. We climbed over 18,000 feet. There was a crew that helped us through the obstacles and psychological challenges. When you cross 14,000 feet, the lack of oxygen can get disconcerting. It was great to experience that with the participants. The journey wasn’t tough; it was spiritual.

How did they deal with it?
They wanted to quit several times, but did not, because they had conviction. They were committed for various reasons, and that took them right to the end.

What message does this show attempt to spread?
The awareness [of the ill-effects of smoking] is there. Every cigarette will kill you; you don’t need anyone to emphasize that. The show hopes to inspire people. If this lot can transform, they should inspire others to follow suit.

How would you chronicle your battle with smoking?
I would smoke almost 30 cigarettes a day. But I stopped it 15 years ago. It was tough to rid myself of the addiction. It took me almost two years to give it up completely. Cigarettes are addictive, and easily available. That makes the effort [to quit smoking] harder. So, I could sympathize with the participants, understand the trauma of enduring withdrawal symptoms and mood swings.

What convinced you to kick the butt?
I always knew it was a stupid thing to do. As a sportsman, I was foolish to even start. I started smoking at 30 without any trigger. I was simply waiting for a shot, and decided to try it. Then, there was one cigarette after another. I just let it happen to me. I decided to give it up when I realized my addiction was becoming a concern.

There was a fair amount of discussion about your relationship with 18-year-old Ankita Konwar. How did you handle that?
It did not bother me, especially because she was not a minor [when we started dating]. It was amusing to see people go crazy over nothing. I was travelling [when the news came out] and it was fun to read what was being written about us. We have a simple story. We met at a nightclub in Chennai, and fell in love.

Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; April 21, 2017)

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 27, 2017)

Gitanjali Chandrasekharan (MID-DAY; January 1, 2017)

When I was younger, I disliked running. I was a swimmer and was a national level athlete. However, swimming was something I stopped doing regularly when I was 23 years old, around the time I took up modelling. When I was 38 years old, I took up running and that changed my life.

The marathon — because of its history — was a mythical concept in my head, something I knew as a child that I wanted to attempt once in my life. So, when in 2003, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon was announced (for the year 2014), I knew I had to participate. After all, it was an event that was happening in my city. I prepared for it for a few months and ran the half marathon. Suffice to say, I was hooked.

After that, I went on to do the full marathon, several city-to-city runs and then, last year I participated in the Ironman — which is a triathlon. Next, I am training for the Ultraman which will be conducted in Florida in February.

I feel most like myself when I run. I feel one with the Universe. At the most basic level, you feel in control of yourself and you feel like you are in the right place. Swimming has now taken a backseat. I now swim once or twice a year, but when I do, it’s long distances. I enjoy running more.

From the 'Made in India' video in 1995 to an impossible triathlon two decades later, Milind Soman has always done things that are out of the box
Mohini Chaudhuri (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 26, 2015)

It's been a couple of days since the internet has been buzzing with a picture of a bare-chested Milind Soman emerging from the water in his black swimming trunks. For many, women in particular, the image carried with it a strong sense of deja vu. Perhaps it brought to mind a similar bare chested image of him slowly emerging from a wooden box in the hugely popular '90s music video Made in India by Alisha Chinai. "I've received screenshots of the picture trending on social media and I kept thinking, 'Why?' People have sent me links to stories like '16 reasons why Milind Soman is a national treasure' and '7 reasons why women can't get over him'. I thought that was really sweet," says the former super-model.

The euphoria-inducing photo was posted by Soman after he completed the Ironman triathlon in Zurich last week. Strangely, the challenging race that involves a 3.8-km swim, a 180.2-km cycle ride and 42.2-km run was Soman's idea of a perfect birthday gift to himself on turning 50. "Since last year I've been thinking of how I should celebrate my 50th year. I think this has been good," he says. He completed the race in 15 hours and 19 minutes.

That Soman is a fitness fiend is hardly breaking news. He's been a champion of barefoot running for close to 14 years and is somewhat of a permanent fixture at marathons. In 2012, he ran from Delhi to Mumbai which he says was "much, much tougher", but didn't draw this sort of attention. A possible explanation for the overwhelming response this time round, he believes, is the growing awareness towards endurance sports. But more significantly, those who've grown up in the '90s are having trouble digesting the fact that the former pin-up model is hitting 50. "I have the Made in India song, the other music videos, and the TV show Captain Vyom on my Twitter and Facebook feed all the time. So if people are watching that, they get a shock when they suddenly see a picture in the newspaper where my hair is completely grey. They probably feel, 'He's so old! When did that happen?" says Soman, with a laugh.

Back in the day, Soman was one of the most sought after male models, after which he dabbled in film and television — all professions that thrive on youth. "I think it is because of my fitness and health that I still feel like I'm 24. I never felt any kind of pressure to look young. I still get a lot of attention, so there's no insecurity," he says.

Soman admits that his lifestyle choices do make him a misfit in the glamour industry, and yet, he's never felt uncomfortable. "I was never drawn to the world of showbiz or the lifestyle that comes along with it. I don't have an agent or a PR person," he explains. Raised in a Maharashtrian family of doctors, scientists and academics, he probably learnt not to take his celebrity too seriously. "I had no connection with media, advertising, films or television. I didn't even have a TV in my house till I was 30. But when I did TV shows like A Mouthful of Sky and Captain Vyom, I got one to show my mom what I was doing," he recalls.

When he's not busy with fitness initiatives like the Pinkathon, an event aimed at raising breast cancer awareness, Soman does the odd movie now and then. "I enjoy acting but I don't find the time to do it," he says. This year, he was seen in the Marathi film Nagrik, where he played a politician, and his next is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Bajirao Mastani. "My choices are bizarre," he laughs. "It all depends on my mood and the people who ask me. It is not a career-oriented decision. In Bajirao, I have a small role. Internationally, I've done three Swedish films which were big productions. So I really thought that doing a film with someone like Sanjay Bhansali would be fun," he says.

His main focus, however, is still fitness. Soman's next big project kicks off at the end of this year in Coorg. "It's an event about tribal pride. It is based on health and barefoot running," he says. Meanwhile, he's already set his sights on the next Ironman challenge. "I'd love to do one every year." 

Milind Soman on whether his character in the J Dey biopic is modelled on Raj Thackeray
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 26, 2015)

"Just before the elections, I want two riots. I'll back the non-Hindus but also target them," these lines delivered by Milind Soman in the trailer of Jaypraad Desai's upcoming crime thriller Nagrik, has YouTube buzzing. According to the grapevine his character is modelled on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray. But quiz him on this and Milind guffaws, "Raj lives a minute away from me. He is practically my neighbour." Then, clearing his throat, he adds, "I play a politician yes, and if there is any similarity between Raj and my character it's only because of our schooling, upbringing, a particular political ambition and of course, my look in the film."

Two decades after he first featured in the Alisha Chinai music video, Made In India, the actor has been in the news mostly for his health initiatives. But he's quick to dispel notions that Nagrik, based on the life and death of senior crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, is his comeback film.

"Just four months ago, I worked in a Marathi film, Astu, about a retired Sanskrit professor suffering from Alzheimer's who goes missing while travelling with his daughter. But no one talked about the film or wrote about it. But the makers of Nagrik are leaving no stone unturned to promote their film and I've now come to understand how important and difficult publicity is," he admits.

Nagrik marks the comeback of 87-yearold veteran Dr. Shriram Lagoo who plays Godfather-like character. "We have some intense scenes together. He is the silent sort and his character, much like the film, explores how little we really understand Indian politics thanks to the infotainment news channels offer," he points out.

The 49-year-old actor has also been filming with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for his upcoming period-romance, Bajirao Mastani. Quiz him about his villainous role in the magnum opus and Milind twirls on his handlebar moustache, "The rumours that I am playing the 'big villain' are completely incorrect. It's a unique character, that of a fun-loving Maratha warrior. Honestly, in a love story about two lovers how much of a role can a third wheel have?"

Incidentally, it was Milind's Maratha lineage that charmed SLB. "Yes, I am Maratha and the way I look adds to my character in the film," he grins. "But I haven't asked him if that was why he cast me in his film."