‘Katrina Kaif loves the gym’
Celebrity fitness trainer Yasmin Karachiwala talks about training Katrina and Deepika for their recent projects
While Katrina Kaif made a lot of hearts skip a beat with her killing looks as well as her performance in Bang Bang, Deepika Padukone is also back, scorching the screen in the song Lovely from the soon to be released Happy New Year . Both the actresses have made reporters as well as the audience talk endlessly about their fit and toned bodies, whether it be for their acrobatic dance moves or the amazing stunts they have performed without using a stunt double ( for example Katrina’s strenuous stunts in Bang Bang). To be able to do that, one requires a great level of fitness and maybe it’s not a mere coincidence that both Katrina and
Deepika share at least one thing, or one person, in common: their fitness trainer Yasmin Karachiwala. We caught up with Yasmin to find out how the Bollywood divas work for their fitness.
Talking about her training with Katrina Kaif, Yasmin says, “While Katrina was shooting for Bang Bang, she was simultaneously shooting for Dhoom 3 as well. And while in Dhoom 3, she had a very muscular look, in Bang Bang it needed to be more lean. So, while we had to work on her muscular look first, right after that we had to get her lean look right as well, which was quite a challenge. With this in mind, we did a lot of functional training for Bang Bang.”
Sharing more about Katrina’s fitness regime, Yasmin adds, “We used to do full body workouts and there was also the circuit workout with plyometrics. It started with a set of squats, followed by a
YASMIN KARACHIWALA FITNESS TRAINER All actresses are working hard to fit the roles they have been signed for
set of pushups, followed by a set of hanging abs, and then we’d do box jumps. And then repeat the circuit twice. After that we used to do another circuit that included cable lunges, MFT jammers, ball crunches and conclude with bench- overs. Apart from being strong and fit, Katrina is also very dedicated and committed to her fitness and her work.” Yasmin’s journey as a fitness trainer started nearly 23 years back but it took a turn when she started pilates training eight years ago. Her first celebrity student was Kareena Kapoor and after that there was no looking back. She has trained Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt, Preity Zinta, Illeana D’Cruz, Amrita and Malaika Arora and many others. Asked to share her experience of training different celebrities, Yasmin says, “Everybody has their weaknesses and their strengths and I enjoy working with all of them because they all have different kinds of bodies and different needs. Like Deepika is an only pilates person, we don’t do gym at all. And Katrina loves to do gym, and she does whatever the requirement of the hour is. So we do gym and a lot of highpowered workouts. And she loves to do workouts with me. So whenever she is coming, she tells me not to do my workout and do it with her instead. Alia has just started working with me two months ago, so she’s very excited because everything is very new for her. Alia does pilates every day, and gym on alternate days.”
As a trainer, Yasmin feels that actresses have started taking their fitness more seriously these days. “In today’s age, we have seen Priyanka do a role like Mary Kom and Katrina’s acrobatics in Dhoom 3. It’s not like an actress takes the first shot and then a stunt double does the rest of the scene while the actress is there just for her face. All actresses are working hard to fit the roles that they have been signed for. And they are not behind men when it comes to performing action as well. The only difference is that while men go for muscles and six and eight pack abs, for actresses it’s more about being lean and flexible,” says Yasmin.