Pakistani actor Fawad Khan, who is all set to play a fierce prizefighter in his upcoming film ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’, had a strict fitness regime as the movie required him to put on several kilos and bulk up. Weighing around 73-75 kg, Khan went up to 100 kg for the character. Khan said he took inspiration from Bollywood’s Aamir Khan and Christian Bale to transform himself into a fighter, however, regrets the way he did it as it landed him in a hospital.
Aamir Khan had gone through a major physical transformation for his 2008 film 'Ghajini’ which featured him with eight-pack abs. The actor had taken 13 months to bulk his body up for the film. He also transformed his body for ‘Dangal’, in which he had to play with a middle-aged with a growing belly in some parts but as a fit wrestler in others. Christian Bale is particularly known for his physical transformations for his roles, and has undergone extreme transformations multiple times.
Fawad, who did not have enough time to prepare himself for the role, pushed himself too much to get the body he wanted but ended up being hospitalised. In a recent interview, the actor said, “It is not the best thing I did to myself. I would never do that again. I just made some questionable choices, which negatively affected me. There is a dark underbelly to all of these physical transformations and people should know that when you make these decisions, it is taking a huge toll on your health. And it happened. Ten days into it, I was hospitalised. My kidneys shut down.”
Fawad revealed that the process affected his physical health quite badly as he is also diabetic, and it took him three months to recover. He said, "I was putting in insane hours. It’s not the right way to do these things because the thing is I had limited time. I had 1-1.5 months. Due to whatever circumstances, it happened the way it happened. I am a bit insane in that way. I am not Christian Bale but I tried to do what he does, even Aamir Khan for that matter. If I had 6 months, maybe Maula Jatt would have looked very different. It is not a transformation that I would encourage for anyone. Absolutely never.”
Fawad reunites with Mahira Khan in ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt.’ The two have previously worked in films like ‘Parey Hut Love’ and ‘Ho Mann Jahaan’ and the TV series ‘Humsafar’. ‘The Legend of Maula Jatt’, is a Punjabi-language film, and has been described as the most expensive Pakistani film to date. It releases in theatres on October 22.
