Ever since the trailer of Puri Jagannadh’s Liger was released, lead actor Vijay Deverakonda’s physical transformation has been the talk of the town. The person who brought about this metamorphosis is one of the leading fitness and transformation experts, Kuldep Sethi.
Speaking about his training journey with the star, Sethi said in a statement, “Vijay and I started training in January 2020 but the planning and training for the same began a month prior to that. He plays a UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] fighter in the movie and that was a challenging task. We had to ensure that he is flexible and his moves are at par with an MMA fighter.”
Explaining the finer details, he added, “Initially we started with more strength training to add muscle mass and as the programme progressed we added hard-core, plyometric and agility exercises to enhance his mobility. I had to be very keen to ensure that his body develops like that of an athlete (MMA [mixed martial arts] fighter) and not like a bodybuilder. The main goal was to make his body symmetrical with my training. There are various actors who have disproportionately bigger arms and stuff but this is not the case with Vijay now. If you see his body, it is symmetrical and proportional.”
Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Liger also stars Ananya Panday, Ramya Krishnan and boxing legend Mike Tyson. The film sees Deverakonda play a guy from a humble background who fights various adds in order to reach his goal. He gets ample support from his mother, played by Krishnan.
“Vijay’s weaker points were his legs, back muscles and shoulders,” added Sethi while speaking about the challenges Vijay’s body brought in. “I would like to highlight that Vijay has had one or two shoulder injuries but he has been extremely dedicated throughout the regime and the result is in front of the entire world.”
Liger will be released in theatres on 25 August.