Robin Behl: Blending callisthenics with lifting served us well

Aditya Roy Kapur

Considering the athletic frame that he has sported throughout his career, one would assume that Aditya Roy Kapur would have had to up his fitness regimen by only a small proportion to acquire the lithe physique of Shaan Sengupta in The Night Manager. "I'd wake him up early and send him off on a run. I'd make him execute drills, like push-ups and pull-ups. There was a fair amount of weight-lifting work, callisthenics, and floor work involved. We also incorporated some amount of martial arts training," says Robin Behl, before adding, "But you are right. He has an incredible physique!"

Robin Behl with Aditya Roy Kapur

Behl has turned his attention to athletic techniques that prioritise "good quality" movement over "traditional forms in which you're simply lifting without purpose]". That Kapur's Shaan, a former navy officer, also needed to come across as someone who has "freedom of movement" implies that Behl's learnings could indeed serve Kapur. "Primarily, a lot of strength and conditioning work was involved. We didn't want to focus on what this could do for this project alone because we wanted to develop [techniques] that could serve him for other projects as well. So, it wasn't about the aesthetics alone. I love gymnastic rings, and also incorporated weighted exercises into his routine. Fasted cardio works well for him, and we injected small bits of cardiovascular training into his weight-training routine to burn fat. When callisthenics is blended with lifting, you can create a [holistic] routine. While movements like pull-ups and push-ups work on the entire group of muscles and improve stability, isolated weight-lifting exercises helped me train the muscles that [needed to be enhanced for the show]."

If it wasn't for the resolute Kapur, Behl admits navigating the long training schedule during the shoot, battling extreme temperatures, and keeping him on a caloric restriction that was only sufficient to sustain his activities, wouldn't have been possible. "We didn't want to drive him to a stage of burn-out. There was barely any gap between [the shooting schedules] and we wanted him to retain his energy levels. If he was pushed to exhaustion, his body wouldn't react. We were doing a mix of a lot of movement. We ensured that he tracked his nutrition, ate clean and limited his intake to the amount his body [essentially] required, and kept his macros in check. Three days before a body shot, we'd eliminate salt from his diet. He'd be on minimal calories and would consume a low-carb diet. At one time, he was eating only 1,800 calories, [which could be difficult to adhere to] since he is a big guy. While he was in a deficit, I couldn't push him or make him lift heavy weights. There had to be a sync between his nutrition, training, and [rest]. It's a relationship between three elements. I had to ascertain that he was getting the required amount of rest and that his stress levels were in check. But, Aditya takes on any task [with diligence]. He doesn't have a half-hearted approach. So, even after a 12 to 14-hour shooting schedule, when he'd see me waiting for him, he'd be ready to train within five minutes."

1,800
Caloric intake of actor while shooting the series