Age is just a number. An Indian actor who proves this is fitness enthusiast Milind Soman—the former supermodel who attained cult status after starring in the Made in India music video, a 1995 Indie-pop classic by Alisha Chinai. Soman’s—he flagged off the World Earth Day Run to commence the seventh-anniversary celebrations of DLF Mall of India (DLF MoI), Noida—a tryst with fitness began at the age of eight.
Reflecting on his fitness journey in a chat with The Morning Standard, the author of Made in India: A Memoir shared, “I am amazing—it is not like I ever had a bad time, was depressed, sad, or failed at something. I think it helps you to understand the meaning of failure and success and put it into perspective. So, I feel I never failed at anything, was never rejected, and everything was good. Maybe that could be the impact of fitness.”
Pushing beyond comfort
At the run, which was part of DLF MoI’s Active Noida initiative—it is about promoting health and wellness among the residents of the city while raising awareness about various social and environmental issues—Soman spoke about the importance of organised events to keep people motivated and committed to their fitness goals.
This initiative is set to provide goals with every week or month by organising new events such as running a 10-kilometre race or doing Yoga. Having these opportunities is great as these remove the need for people to come up with their own goals.”
Soman now has set his sights on running the London Marathon—the second-largest annual road race in the UK that spans 42kms. “Our bodies and minds are designed for challenges, not comfort,” he added.
“Although we work hard all our lives for comfort, it is risky and dangerous to be too comfortable because it goes against our natural design.”
Running towards new goals
In addition to being an influencer, Soman is also a passionate sustainability and environmental advocate, “The concept of the world evolving is a little complicated because nothing happening to the environment is bad for the environment. The environment is continuously evolving, and it has been changing for billions of years, with the ice ages, heatwaves, and evolution of species. This doesn’t happen because of us. We have only accelerated it a little bit faster with our activities, but that is bad for us—not for the environment. It is bad for us that we are poisoning ourselves, our water, our air, and our food.”
Touching upon the adverse effects of the various types of pollution on people, Soman shared, “How do you think events like active-plastic microplastics inside the human body are going to start affecting the way our organs function?,” adding, “Now, infertility has become such a big thing. Firstly, people don’t want to get married anymore… They don’t want children. In so many countries, the population is declining. Also, we cannot procreate because of the pollution inside our bodies [how it harms our body], which we are creating.”
The heartthrob and fitness icon—he recently acted in the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Emergency—also juggles his time as an actor. Soman divulges his exciting and upcoming plans in conclusion, “Even though my fans love to see me running, I keep myself busy with various projects. I will next be acting in a film called Starfish [an adaptation of Bina Nayak’s book, Starfish Pickle] and One Friday Night [co-starring Raveena Tandon], which I did last year and will release soon.”