” Nothing worth having comes easy. ” Meet Slumdog bodybuilder, Rakesh Udiyar who once used to sell candies in local trains and now is the fitness trainer of Bollywood megastar Salman Khan and Aamir Khan.
Rakesh Udiyar comes from a slum family. His father was a contractor with a company called Hamilton Cycles. Everything was going good but when Rakesh was 5 years old, his father was stuck with Paralysis on the left side. They weren’t rich enough to make him get cured and none of the relatives or friends came for help.
The formidable trainer recalls, “There were days when we ate only rice and had black tea and then there were days when we didn’t even get that”.
Rakesh and his brother were left with no choice and had to cope with the situation. On the advice of a friend, Rakesh started selling Pepsi candies and those days he used to get Rs. 2.5 if he somehow managed to sell 100 Pepsis per day. Meanwhile, his brother also started working at a tea stall. But both of them also attended Marathi school simultaneously.
At the age of 12 years, Rakesh lost his father after a long struggle with the disease. He also worked as a delivery boy in Amritsari Dhaba.
As he was always attracted towards fitness, he used to read everything related to fitness and diet. At 16, he got a job at Q’s gym where he used to work as a sweeper.
Rakesh Udiyar says,”Later I got promoted to a spotter (floor trainer). I used to stand there and just see or help the clients with the machines, so one day my friend came to me and said you deserve a place much better than this.”
His first celebrity experience was with Akhilesh Mishra. Later he started working at Gold’s gym and helped Arbaaz Khan reduce from 95 kgs to 83 kgs and gave him a leaner look. His work with celebrities started and she also helped Diya mirza get that diva body.
Through Arbaaz, he got in contact with Salman Khan who was back then shooting for his film Bodyguard. Rakesh says, “Once he(Salman Khan) starts exercising, he doesn’t even look at his cell phone, not even an important call. Even if he is landing from say London or the US at 2 am, he will go and work out and I never say no. I know this guy, if he’ll not train, he’ll not sleep. He can’t live without it and that’s his lifestyle”
Salman is known for his helping nature and he helped Rakesh get his US visa where he went to train with my guru Dennis James.
He then met Aamir Khan in a gym and Aamir told him that he was looking for someone to train his son Junaid, who was putting on weight. After 6 months, Rakesh trained Aamir for his dashing body for Dhoom 3 and PK.
Further, then he helped Salman for his latest film Sultan and Aamir for his upcoming film Dangal.
Rakesh Udiyar also trained some other celebrities including Pulkit Samrat, Kunal Kapoor and is currently working with many national-level bodybuilders.
Rakesh, who now owns a fitness academy ‘Scrunch’ says:
“But the journey hasn’t been easy and I have had my share of ups and downs. There have been times when I have been scared of failure and I have dreaded going back to the point from where I started. And at the end, I would just say that, in order to be successful, you have to be scared of something! Everything you want is on the other side of fear”
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