It's Suniel Shetty’s 57^th birthday today. You might want to wish him. But Suniel is notoriously reticent. He escapes to the Lonavala hills where he has a farmhouse for his birthday. There he spends the day with his gorgeous, elegant wife Mana, kids Athiya and Ahana, and close friends playing cricket and just chilling out. This year the birthday falls on the weekend. Suniel won’t be back before Monday. Wish him while you can.

He and I go back in time. Back to the Bullworker days of the 1980s, in fact. “You remember the Bullworker,” he asked me curiously recently. I told him I had never forgotten it. The Bullworker, an isometric exercise fitness product, was equipment with which you could exercise indoors. There was also the ubiquitous dumbbells. Working out back in the day meant exercising in the great outdoors. There weren’t any air-conditioned gyms. “If you knew somebody in whose building there was a monkey bar, you were his friend for life,” Suniel recalled with a laugh.

He was shooting a commercial at Madh Island for Tata Sky which is hosting his 120-days fitness festival called Mission Fit India. This is not about building muscle and looking like the Hulk. That Suniel gave up long ago. He’s into wellness now. Not body-building. And as a business he’s feeding prevention wellness content to Tata Sky’s DTH platform Active Fitness. Which, he told me while explaining Mission Fit India, meant working towards health in such a way that you prevent anything majorly bad from happening to you tomorrow.

  “I’ve figured out the mantra of life,” Suniel said. “How important it is to understand food when you’re physically training. I was out of the country and didn’t exercise for a month. I was eating right and managed to stay lean. Of course, the muscle size reduced. Couldn’t be helped. But one week back in training, and I was there again! Muscle has memory. And the body is like a machine. You’ve got to work it every day for it to work right.” Interestingly, Mission Fit India is partnered by Patanjali and the amazing Baba Ramdev who said, “Like every coin has two sides, so does your health – the body and mind. And both need equal attention for your total wellness.” 

In his avatar as a wellness guru, Suniel no longer looks like his bulging muscles will burst out of his clothes. He’s lean and ripped, with a trim new moustache and beard, salt-and-pepper hair, and wears rimless glasses that give him a fashionable, mature look. Incredibly, he has a 29-inch waist. The distress jeans and tee-shirt are gone. He was dressed in shiny black pants, a buttoned-down pink shirt and polka-dotted tie, leather moccasins. I have known him for years and it’s amazing, he’s never looked better than at 57. I call him Anna. In the South it means elder brother. Everybody calls him Anna. Just like everybody addresses Salman Khan as Bhai.

Understand your goal. Understand what you need to do. Weight gain is not about taking protein. Everything is knowledge! That’s what Mission Fit India is all about

Excerpts from an interview:

You’ve always been into fitness. What does it mean to you?

It’s the be-all and end-all of everything for me. I got into the cinema because of fitness, because of my action, I could do daredevil stunts. Producers said, “You’ve got a great body, you will be good for the villain’s role!” Fortunately, my action was good. And I got the hero’s role. Acting I learned along the way. But about fitness, they say if you do something for 21  days it becomes a habit, you do it for 90 days it becomes your lifestyle. Fitness has become my lifestyle. It’s got into my DNA. It’s like brushing my teeth. Or as important as breathing is. It’s just become a part of me now.

Fitness has changed since the Bullworker days...

Yes, it’s become more technical. There are better equipment and more awareness. For nutrition, training methods, age-related exercises, fitness trainers, the need and importance of rest and sleep to rejuvenate. I’m so happy that fitness has evolved. It’s now become wellness. Everybody’s talking about it. No government has ever taken care of the people from a health perspective. I think education and health are basic necessities. And health has always been neglected. I’m glad that we are conscious about that now because wellness is far cheaper than illness. And if you take care of your health, you don’t need to go to a doctor, to the hospital, you won’t need to take medicines.

Learn to appreciate people and a quality in them and see the difference it makes in your life.

You’ve been training for a long time...

I started training because I loved cricket and wanted to play for the country. I thought I was very good. And I liked to hit hard shots. But apparently, I wasn’t good enough. I was a big fan of Vivian Richards and I met him and said, “Sir, you are so big and tough, but are you flexible?” And the great Viv Richards told me, “Son, don’t you see me hit the ball as hard as it can be hit? You train hard with weights to gain power in your wrists.” I realised he was right. Sometimes you can be God-gifted like our Rohit Sharma is and have great timing in your batting. Or you can be a power hitter like Chris Gayle or Kieron Pollard in which case it’s not about timing but sheer, brutal power. I decided to train after that meeting with Viv Richards. And I developed my body. But I never got to play cricket.

You’ve never been into packaged vitamin and mineral supplements like whey protein, branch chain amino acids, L-glutamine and creatine which are testosterone boosters and muscle builders...

Till date, I don’t know what they mean. I think a supplement is what you take when your body is lacking something. We are not athletes of that level that we need to take supplements. Food has everything. Your body tells you whether it’s high or low in energy. Whether it’s bloated. Mark those days on a calendar. Find out what’s not working for you. It’s important to understand food when you’re physically training. A lot of us are lactose and gluten intolerant. It’s a simple test to find out what works and doesn’t work for your body. The day you understand that, 70% of your problems will be over. You can be your own nutritionist. Milk and gluten don’t work for me. I didn’t start crying or run to doctors for medicines. I just cut both out of my system. There are alternatives like almond or soya milk and brown rice. For me, supplements are pure food what Mom cooked. Understand your goal. Understand what you need to do. Weight gain is not about taking protein. Everything is knowledge! That’s what Mission Fit India is all about..

You’re a Bollywood hero and also an inspiration...

Everybody needs a hero. When I came into the film industry, the heroes were Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan. Each one of them was known for something. Dharamji was pure muscle. Mr. Bachchan was known for his action and his killer looks. Shatruji had his dialogue delivery. And Vinodji... nobody till date has his swag. They all had attitude. One of my favourite lines is, “My personality is who I am, but my attitude depends on who you are.” I might have been intimidated when I joined Bollywood if it was not for Danny Denzongpa who told me, “No matter where you are, in whose company you’re standing, have the courage and confidence to hold your own.” Today, you don’t need to look up to an actor for a hero. Your hero could be your Dad or Mom or your teacher or anybody. Learn to appreciate people and a quality in them and see the difference it makes in your life. The day you start learning to appreciate and be grateful, everything will start growing in your life.