Good, bad & ugly: Tales of Bollywood body transformation

"Hai muscular" makes Pappu "popular and spectacular". But is all the "muscle fulana" and "body banana" healthy for Pappu? However, when it comes to Bollywood celebrities, they walk an extra mile and push themselves mentally and physically just to justify the roles they play on screen!

Although realistic cinema is giving the fairytailish movies a run of their money, body transformation is a common thread that holds the two together be it Kareena Kapoor Khan's size zero in "Tashan" or Bhumi Pednekar gaining upto 30 kilos to play the naive Sandhya in "Dum Laga Ke Haisha".

Beefing up, going lean and making those perfect pecks have grabbed headlines for some actors like Aamir Khan in "Ghajini" and "Dangal", Shah Rukh Khan in "Om Shanti Om", Rajkummar Rao in "Trapped" to name a few making movie buff's think it is easy to gain or shed weight.

Actor Sonu Sood, who is popular for his fitness, says a healthy body doesn't need constant bulking or losing if the individual has been regular in diet and fitness routine.

"When you lose a lot of weight in a very short span that's a time when a lot of side effects happen to your body, which you don't realise. I have seen a lot of actors do it for a role and then they leave it. Keep that schedule intact throughout your life," Sonu told .

He added that if an individual wants to achieve goals in a very short time then definitely it's going to affect you. Stay fit always and then I don't think losing or gaining would affect your system."

Oscar winning-actor Christian Bale has always managed to push the envelope with his performance. He is known for delivering shocking physical transformations be it his skeletal frame in "The Mechanist", his Herculean built in "The Dark Knight Rises" or as Dick Cheney in "Vice", where he managed to bulk up and try prosthetics.

Kareena went down to a size zero for "Tashan", which she said that she wouldn't try again in "Koffee With Karan".

Rajkummar Rao went to the extent of two carrot and black coffee diet to lose weight for "Trapped". For his recent release "Made In China", he gained a couple of kilos.

"As of now I am only thinking about my characters. But, yes, medically we tend to just go with the flow and forget about that it can have some consequences," Rao told .

Actor Vidyut Jammwal, who was recently seen swaying a full gas cylinder on social media and has a perfectly chiselled physique, does not subscribe to "extreme measures to bring change in the body".

Vidyut told : "But a sustainable and disciplined approach towards training that enhances the abilities of the human body- that is capable of doing far more than we recognise or are trained to understand."

Actor Sharad Kelkar, who started his career as a fitness instructor, agrees that it is the profession that demands a lot from an actor for different roles and films.

Should fans follow the actors extensive body transformations?

Jasbir Singh, a fitness professional from Anytime Fitness Noida, gets a lot of queries from clients on how to achieve the perfect celebrity like body. He agrees that getting motivated to something better is not bad.

"Having said that I don't believe it is a good thing to follow in the footsteps of the celebrities pushing their physique specially the methods they apply to live up to a certain character in a movie. They push their bodies to a great extent abusing it in a way. A lot goes

behind the scenes of the transformation you see on the big screen. Injuries, sacrifices, anabolic use, performance enhancing drugs with extreme diets," Singh told .

He added: "Adopting a healthier lifestyle and proper guidance can lead you to that without going to the extremes. Learning about your nutrition and proper training with an expert can help you do that. It's just a matter of being relentless and pushing things in a right

way."

Sharad couldn't agree more with Singh.

"Its for certain period when they have to do a certain role. They (stars) change their body... they go for extensive training... supplements and all. There is no harm in being inspired by your favourite actor or actress but to take extreme measures for that without consulting a proper doctor or trainer without checking blood reports and popping pills and other substances that is wrong," Sharad told .

He added: "If you want to make certain kind of body do under guidance don't follow your stars that they have a certain body blindly because they go through a lot of changes with scientific measures, medical consultancy.... Take proper precautions."

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )