Heroes of Bollywood: From selling candies to becoming Salman & Aamir's fitness trainer, Rakesh Udiyar's journey is inspiring!

'Everything you want is on the other side of fear' - This is Rakesh Udiyar's golden mantra in life that has taken him to places. A fitness enthusiast and a trainer to B-Town's most loved actors - Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, Rakesh's journey has been both interesting and inspiring. In a heart-to-heart chat, Rakesh opens up about his struggles, his encounter with Salman and Aamir, his vision in life and more! Excerpts:

As a growing child from a slum family, I have always been in sports, like kabbadi and you how it is in a Marathi school and how they teach you. I was always into some or the other sports and I was a naughty kid of my family. Talking about my family background, there was a time when things were good till my father was a contractor with a company called Hamilton Cycles. It was the first company in India to represent cycles. I don’t know where things went wrong and my father got a paralysis attack and half of his body just stopped working. In those days, travelling from Ambernath to anywhere wasn’t easy, especially in the early 80s. That is when we found out a doctor in Kolkata, who was a specialist in treating paralyzed patients. But it was very expensive for my mom to fly and take him to Kolkata. She could take him only twice or thrice and the only part which was not working was his left side. He used to earn in lacs in those days and all of a sudden everything took a u-turn as he lost out on all contracts. Neither anyone from the dad’s family members helped us nor anyone from my mother’s side. I was hardly 5-6 years old. There were days when we ate only rice and had black tea and then there were days when we didn’t even get that. I have seen such a bad phase. Nobody was ready to even give us Rs. 5 or 10. When my father realized that we really needed some money, he went and cleaned a guy’s bathroom that was fully choked. That day he earned Rs. 30 and in his entire life, he never did these kind of things. He came back and when I got to know about it, I felt really bad.

That day my brother and I decided to do something which helps our family. My brother’s friend Ganesh used to sell hair clips and bangles in the trains between Ulhasnagar and Dadar stations. My brother thought that if we can get Rs. 10 or 20, then even we can start a similar business. I started selling those pepsi candies and those days we used to get that Re. 1 wala pepsi. Wo candy ki tarah aata tha and dhai rupaye ka 100 milta tha and agar wo dhai ka poora bik gaya din mein then you’ll get Rs. 5 in a day. So, this is the way I started earning money and this was when I was 7 or 8 years old. And then my brother also started working and he got a job of chai pilane ka and tadka maarne ka.  No one used to give him tips, he was given coupons. He used to collect  those coupons and then mera dhai dhai rupay karke dus hojata tha din ka. We both collected Rs. 25 and then we bought those hair clips and bangles from Ulhasnagar from galli no. 4 kyunki wahi milta tha sab wholesale ka. If you used to give Rs 25, you’ll get stuff worth Rs 50. Ganesh took us there as he knew everything there and my brother then started this thing. I, side by side, used to sell Pepsi.

We did this by simultaneously attending school. But one day, my brother got caught in the train for travelling without a ticket. Ganesh came to me and said that your brother has been caught. Ganesh and I went to the ticket collector (TC) and cried in front of him. TC asked us how much was the cost of the material that we sold and also asked us to not do this business and instead wanted us to study. Despite being caught, we did the same thing, the next day, because we were in need of money. But then we realised ki kuch ho nahi ho raha and everytime Rs. 25 se kuch hone wala nai hai. By now, my mother also started working in Bandra with a rich family. They were into selling stationery and I still remember her name, it was Mrs. Bina Chiblani. They said that apne bachon ko bhi lekar aao aur unko hum padha denge. This way, my brothers and my sister, we all started working separately, because of which my father became all alone. Later, his health started deteriorating and he got bed-ridden and then one day he lost his battle with life and died. It was shocking for me and I was only 12 yrs old that time. That is when I thought that I have to pursue education and I told Bina aunty that I want to study at least till the 10th standard.

While studying, I started working at Amritsari Dhaba, which was near to the Telephone Exchange building in Bandra. I used to attend school in the morning and at night I worked as a delivery boy there. delivery boy ka kaam karta tha. I practiced my free hand exercises to keep fit and would eat whatever was available at the dhaba. I was also in the habit of reading anything related to fitness and diet. I was always attracted to that. So I decided to get into fitness and I approached someone for work. I got my first job at Q’s Gym, which was in Khar. I was working as a sweeper there when I was just 16 years old. There, I met two guys - Anil Alapat and Ashok Shinde, who are well-known in the industry, but still people don’t know them. All the big trainers come to them to learn, be it Abbas Ali or anyone else. Anil used to give me a magazine called MD (Muscle Developer) which gave much insight into bodybuilding. I was a sweeper back then, but after sometime 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.

After that, I started working at Gym and Tonic in Andheri, where I worked for around two years and then I started training Akhilendra Mishra, which was the first experience of training a celebrity. I later quit the job and shifted to Dubai with my mom. But later I came back to India and started working as a freelancer.

When I came back, one of my friends, Siraj Sheikh, who used to work in Golds Gym Bandra, told me that one of his clients needed help. I agreed to help and one day he took me to Arbaaz Khan’s place. First day, when Arbaaz bhai came he was having tea and said ‘Yeh chottu help karega?’ and I said haan! Arbaaz wanted to lose weight for his movie Kissan. Back then, I made Arbaaz bhai reduce from 95 kgs to 83 kgs and gave him a leaner look. That’s how I started with celebs.

Then I met Dia Mirza, who wanted a diva body. I started working with her and jo jo mujhe pata tha I tried it and she got that perfect look for the film Acid Factory. I finished with her and then I met Prameet Kotak. I learnt lot of functional training from him. It was in 2007 when Prameet and I did TRX Kissan camps, a programme that focused on how a kissan (farmer) used to stay fit, and boot camps which is in vogue now.

After I finished Kissan, Arbaaz bhai and I were training for Fashion as he had to bulk up. And one day I got a call late at night and the person said ‘Kya kar raha hai? Main bol raha hun’. But then I didn't understand who was on the other side so I hung up the call. Later, I saw a text message by Arbaaz bhai which said Salman bhai will call you. And then he called me again and I picked up the call and said ‘Ji bhai’. He said ‘We are shooting for Bodyguard and I need to look way thin and chiselled’. And those days, Salman bhai was suffering from that nerve disorder and he couldn’t take any supplements. We tried and kept his diet intact and the rest as you know is history.

I have never seen someone so dedicated to his exercise routine. Once he 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. People still don’t know who trains Salman and that’s how I work. It’s not being chupa-rustom, but more the silence, the better it is. And for me, Salman Khan is family. In fact, he helped me get my US visa, when I wanted to go there and train with my guru Dennes James. Had Salman not been there, my visa would have taken longer. As long as getting recognition is concerned, I wanted my work to speak for me and when it started happening, I got many other clients including Aamir Khan, Pulkit Samrat, Kunal Kapoor among others.

I met Aamir at a gym in a high end hotel where I used to train someone. He was training there for Dhoom 3. He used to see me and was quite impressed. That’s when he came to me and told that he was looking for someone to train his son Junaid, who was putting on weight. He asked me whom all do I train, to which I said, ‘Salman Khan!’. He initially didn’t believe me, but I guess later, he spoke to Salman sir. Later, I also told bhai that I met Aamir. That’s when Salman sir said that ‘Aree you should train his son. He’s very good’.

But then for six months, there were no calls from Aamir. I went up to bhai and he was like Aamir must be busy. And then after 10 days, I got a call from Aamir’s manager and he said that sir would like to speak to you. I went to his house and he said ‘I have a portion to complete for Dhoom 3 and one of PK. And for the same I need to train.’ I agreed.

I started training Aamir after that and then came a challenge - Sultan and Dangal- both were films based on wrestlers. So November 2015, I started working with Salman sir first because Dangal was releasing later. Also, Aamir sir told ‘Pehle tu Salman ka karle!’. When I was training Salman sir, it was Rahul Bhatt who jumped in to train Aamir. And then after I was done training Salman bhai, I went back and trained Aamir. I was surprised to see him doing 800 pounds of deadlifts and squats. I have never ever seen anyone except Salman bhai doing such heavy legs training. You’ll notice that Aamir and Salman have same kind of legs. It wasn’t difficult to train both because Aamir sir trains around 9 in the morning and Salman sir an hour after that or vice-versa. It depends entirely on their schedules and sometimes I even have had to wait till late evenings.

After Sultan’s teaser came out, I did get compliments for training him. Lot of people told me that he looked beefed up and he looked bigger and stronger. People kept asking me what’s the secret and I was like he kept on doing the same things everyday and I just had to switch the programmes. I used to get the same routine of a wrestler and make him do it.

Now I am seriously very excited for Dangal as it is all set to hit the theatres soon. And you’ll keep getting surprises. You’ll also get to see one portion in the film where he looks like a 20-year-old boy.

Apart from Salman and Aamir, I am also training a newbie Zaheer Ratansi and I think Salman bhai will launch him. I am also working with many national-level bodybuilders. I want to represent India on international level and change the status of bodybuilding. I have also been training Ram Charan and it’s all online and hopefully you’ll get to see his new look in his upcoming him. I also trained Daisy Shah. I also train girls for bikini competitions.

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!