The making of an on-screen sportsperson

Naga Shaurya takes us through his rigorous regimen

Naga Shaurya’s physical transformation for his upcoming sports drama has stunned everyone. His chiselled bod, complete with eight pack abs, has been drawing a lot of appreciation. The actor reveals that it took him around nine months to achieve the dramatic makeover.

“I never thought I would hit the gym so religiously in my life. Although I paid annual fees at several gyms from 2013 to 18, I did not visit them regularly due to various reasons,” Shaurya says, adding that he had always believed that there should be a strong reason to flaunt a toned body. “I felt that my upcoming sports drama (based on archery) is an ideal script to flaunt abs,” the actor says. Diet and sleep played key roles in the transformation, he shares.

He followed a Keto diet, ate fish and boiled vegetables without salt, and included a lot of broccoli in his diet.

“Ï used to wake up at 4:30 a.m. My workout regimen was from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.,” he says, adding that the warm-up session included 15 minutes of treadmill. “But I have learnt that the most significant part of the makeover is getting proper sleep,” explains the Jyo Achyutananda actor.

“Earlier I used to sleep at 11 p.m., but during this process I went to bed at 8 p.m. So it felt like I had a lot of time in the day,” he observed.

“I slept at my trainer Antony’s personal gym; I stayed there for several weeks,” he recalls, and asserts that he continued to work out even during the lockdown.

Describing the entire process of transformation as fun, Shaurya says “I started to feel more confident about myself.”

Does an archer need a ripped body to play the sport, we ask.

A sportsperson needs to be mentally and physically fit, asserts Naga Shaurya. An athlete can be successful only if the mind and body can strike a balance. And for this film, since I wanted to show something different and dramatic, I flaunted eight pack abs,” he explains.

I was a National level sports person (tennis player) before coming into the industry. So I could learn the ropes of Archery easily under a coach — Naga Shaurya