How Ranveer Singh transformed his body for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela
What inspired you to transform your body?
I saw an image of Hrithik, where he had built his body at the time of Krrish. I connected with his trainer Kris Gethin asking him if he could train me too. Kris was busy with Hrithik, but he made Lloyd Stevens fly down from UK to train me for a 12-week programme.
You are wearing a kedia (front open jacket worn in Gujarat) in the song Tattad Tattad initially and then, go shirtless.
Was that planned?
During trials, I tried 30 different kedias, but Mr Bhansali said, ‘You look better without the shirt.’ That is when he decided that I would go shirtless.
How difficult was it?
Lloyd monitored me extremely closely. He was staying with me all the time, monitoring every meal, every portion, actually every morsel and my liquid intake. The food was saltless, raw and tasteless and I would not recommend it to even an enemy. He gave me only fish, broccoli,turkey and green tea. The turkey was cooked in less than a tablespoon of oil. I was not allowed rotis or rice or sweets. I was given minimum oil plus my protein shake after a workout. I would carry my six dabbas with me for shooting, where I would heat it and eat it. Their process is called Drastic Transformation Programme (DTP). I had to work out one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. I would work out at 5 in the morning, start shooting from 9, shoot for the entire day till 6pm and then return to workout for an hour again. One hour in the morning was cardio to burn fat. In the evening, he would take one muscle and obliterate it. He would then come back to that muscle after a week, in which time it would have rested. The diet was super strict and was 80% of the programme, the balance 20% being the training. Mentally, you need to be really strong. When I have to do something, I have to. My biggest weakness is chocolate as I love sweets. And, of course, my biggest help was that I don’t drink more than once or twice a year.
The result?
I achieved my results in six weeks instead of 12. Kris was impressed. All those days, especially before the song Tattad Tattad (that I had no salt, minimum water and bare minimum carbs) were worth it as my body is captured on celluloid and will remain so for a lifetime. It gives you supreme confidence, but you start getting obsessed with your body. I don’t want to obsess about my torso. So I am back to my normal home food and 75 kg that is perfect given my height. I eat simple ghar ka khana in controlled portions. After I came back from the US, my stomach could not handle outside food. Anyway, I mostly have home food only. And of course you have to continue to work out and train everyday. I now know that I can get back to a shirtless body in just two weeks whenever I want.