Pushing a pani-puri cart is how 38-year-old Kitty started building his muscles and stamina. Then, encouraged by a regular customer and a fellow fitness enthusiast, Kitty started going to the gym. Today, the chaat-stall owner is an internationally acclaimed body builder and a personal trainer to many celebrity clients. Kitty trains actors such as Duniya Vijay, Yash and Prem.
The quaint turn of Kitty’s story is that he still runs his pani-puri stall in Mahalakshmi Layout near the Anjaneya Temple.
This body builder, known among friends as ‘Pani Puri’ Kitty, has participated in 83 national and international-level competitions and won in many. There’s a long list of awards to show for his 17 years into body building.
Kitty has won Vishwa Karnataka championship 24 times. He has been Mr India Bodybuilder, winning gold seven times and was crowned Champion of Champions three times.
He has also participated in Mr World Bodybuilder twice, securing third and fourth place, and in Mr Universe Bodybuilder, securing second and third place. “My next competition will be in May, which will be my 84th,” says the bodybuilder.
Kitty says he considers Malleshwar, who inspired him to get into bodybuilding, his guru. “He used to work in the police department and is now 60 years old. Back then he used to conduct competitions. He used to come to my pani-puri stall. I was inspired by him and started going to the gym.”
Kitty says pushing the cart had already readied him for the physical rigour. “Later I showed interest in the gym and a few friends encouraged me while there were others who discouraged me too saying I can’t do both -- selling pani-puris and working on physical fitness. I took it as a challenge and it has become my profession.”
Not limiting himself to just winning championships, Kitty even visited USA and trained at the FlexWheeler Academy for three months. “I have my exams in July,” says Kitty, who has opened a new fitness centre Muscle Planet, at Vidyaranyapura, which will be inaugurated by well-known Sandalwood stars. “This is our fifth centre in Bengaluru. While others are regular, this centre is done to international standards spread across two floors in a commercial space of 6,600 sq ft,” he tells us.
His First Clients
The first actor who hired him as a personal trainer was Duniya Vijay. “He used to participate in body-building competitions and we had common friends,” says Kitty. “Later I became his personal trainer, starting with the film Shankar IPS.” Then Kitty was hired by Yash who “mainly concentrates on his physical strength and stamina to dance.” The others who train under Kitty are Nenapirali Prem, Chetan Chandra, Anil Kumar, Jaggesh son Yathiraj and a few upcoming heroes.