Life is a bit hectic for Katrina Kaif right now. In between basking in the success of Bharat, that crossed over ₹210 crore in earnings, and preparing for her next movie, Sooryavanshi, along with director Rohit Shetty and actor Akshay Kumar, the actress has just been appointed as the brand ambassador for Reebok.
Over a phone call from Mumbai, Katrina talks about why being a fitness icon is important to her. “I’m hoping this will give me a platform to talk to women on various paths of their fitness journey — to those who have just started, and to those well in their way ahead. I want to have conversations in the community on body image,” she says.
For a person so closely associated with fitness, the actress doesn’t believe in exercising in order to get the perfect body: the flattest tummy, the right thigh gap, or the most shapely legs. And this is something she wants teenagers, looking up to her, to know. “I want young girls to realise this: : you have only one life, and one body. I am not advocating any one body type or shape. You don’t exercise to mould yourself into any one physical look,” she says.
Instead, the reason she advocates exercise is because of the feeling of well being that comes with it. “You exercise because it brings you mental peace, it gives you a sense of discipline. And once you have decided what your goal is, the kind of body image that you feel comfortable with, you set out to reach those targets. Achieving that gives you a sense of confidence, it encourages you to pursue other things in life with that same determination and drive,” she says.
- Susanna and Jesse Joseph, Katrina’s mother and step-father, are household names in the villages of Usilampatti taluk in Madurai. They are the unlikeliest paati and thatha who have silently helped scores of villagers combat female foeticide and infanticide during the last decade in areas notorious for the malpractice.
- But their glamorous identity as actor Katrina’s parents is something the villagers perhaps do not quite relate to.
- The low-profile couple prefers not to flaunt its Bollywood connection.
- The news of her daughter being selected as Reebok’s brand ambassador, of course, makes Susanna proud: “Katrina is very passionate about fitness and extremely disciplined. I have known her to come back from a day’s work late at night and hit the gym for an hour. She doesn’t allow excuses.”
- The duo came to India as charity workers after the tsunami and founded the Relief Projects (India) in 2007 to transform the lives of girl children. They now run Mountain View School in E.Pudhupatti.
- — Soma Basu
Role call
“Me? A dancer?” Katrina’s voice raises in disbelief when asked if she dances every day. It’s hard not to associate her with dance: from belly dancing in ‘Swaagat’ to high jumps and rope tricks in ‘Kamli’ for Dhoom 3 (which she fondly recalls as the hardest), her skills as a dancer are well documented. Yet, dancing is not a part of her daily life. “That’s just for the movies,” she says.
For the past week, while she was shooting for Sooryavanshi, Katrina had been focussed on functional and strength training. “...As opposed to Bharat, where I didn’t want my character, Kumud, (an engineer) to have a strong definition or cuts, so I switched my training to pilates, yoga, and cardio-based workouts,” she says.
As an actor, Katrina says, her fitness regimen is flexible: it depends on the role she has been cast in. “I would love to play an athlete, which would need me to undergo more intense transformations. But I’m just as happy playing a role with a regular body where it’s not about reaching the peak of fitness.”
Back to basics
However, when it comes to her ‘off-days’, pilates, is her workout of choice. Remarking that the body responds to how much pressure you put it under, she adds, “When you are training at the level we do, it is important that you give your body rest. I don’t like to keep pushing my body in hyper mode, and rev up its engines. You have to understand when your body needs more gentle exercises, stretching and mobility practice over strength training. For me it’s more about fluid movements, I have also been practising animal flow.”
As for her diet, she likes to go back to the basics, without falling for any fads. “My diet plan is very simple,” she says, before casually adding she stays away from refined sugar, dairy — which she finds inflammatory, fried food, wheat and gluten.
Ultimately, for her, it is about chasing that endorphin hit that staying healthy gives. “You only have one life, and one body,” she signs off.