HE'S tall and lean and what’s more, he sports a six pack himself! It sure looks like Alkhas Joseph, the man behind actor Suriya’s six pack abs believes in practising first what he preaches. Personal trainer to Suriya for the past 12 months, Alkhas is as reticent as Suriya himself. But talk to him about his favourite client Suriya and his eyes sparkle and the words come tumbling out. In a chat with Expresso he tells us about how he came to Chennai and the experience of working with Suriya.
“Suriya is a perfectionist,” is the impression Alkhas has about his celebrity client. “He is also very focused and dedicated. That’s how he was able to achieve the six pack abs in four and a half months.” So how did Alkhas, who hails originally from Delhi, come all the way to Chennai to train Suriya? And thereby hangs an interesting tale. “I have trained under Vaishnav Chaddha and worked as a trainer in Delhi for the past 5 years. In 2007, I went to Mumbai and started work for Sathyajith Chaurasia at the Barbarian gym. Sathyajit was training Aamir Khan for the 8 packs in Ghajini. Suriya, a good friend of Aamir asked him for a trainer for a six pack for his film Vaaranam Ayiram. Aamir asked Sathyajit to send one of his trainers to Chennai. Sathyajit picked me and that’s how I came to Chennai on a 3 day visit to meet Suriya,” recalls Alkhas fondly.
But the 3 day trip was destined to become a longer association. Things clicked and Alkhas cancelled his return ticket and stayed on in Chennai as Suriya wanted him to become his personal trainer. Today, one year later, post the six pack training, Alkhas is also responsible for the lean cut of the shirtless scenes in Ayan and is training Suriya for his forthcoming film with KS Ravikumar.
Talking about Suriya’s training, Alkhas says, “Suriya is older than me but he would complete the daily10 km run better than me!. His stamina and lung capacity are excellent since he doesn’t smoke and leads a very disciplined life. For months he followed a low salt and no rice, no sweets diet to get the six pack.” Alkhas explains how they had to increase Suriya’s weight first and then work on sculpting the body to get the right shape. “In the final stages he had to take only a few sips of water a day and stop salt but he did it unflinchingly.” Alkhas underlines, “Its admirable that he achieved the six pack witout any shortcut aids like steroids.”
Today Alkhas is wonderstruck by Suriya’s perseverance. “When I accompanied him during shoots to Malaysia and Africa, he would wake up at 5 am and shoot tough action scenes the entire day for Ayan. But at 6 pm he would be ready for his two hour training session.
I was amazed. Only then I understood how tough it is to be an actor,” he concludes. Looks like some of our Kollywood actors are heros in real life as well.
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