I had to consume as much as 2,700 calories a day: Ishaan Khatter

Khaali Peeli actor Ishaan Khatter has such a high metabolic rate that he was once called on by the camera-person to notice how his frame had consistently depleted over a 23-hour long shooting schedule for a song sequence. "From the first shot to the last, the change was noticeable. I recall, I had to eat like a pig to gain six kilos for the film, and doing so with a high BMR was hard," says the actor, who had to acquire the bulky frame for his act of a taxi driver in the romantic drama starring Ananya Panday.

Khatter's fitness journey can be traced to his early teens when, like brother Shahid Kapoor, he too landed at the studio of Shiamak Davar. After a bunch of summer workshops, he completed a year-long dance intensive, involving sessions that ran 12 to 14 hours. When he was 16, he began tailing Kapoor into his gym, where the latter encouraged him to take to body-weight exercises to refine his skills.