The first Indian actor to build six-pack abs for a role did so in 1987, way before Hrithik, Salman, John Abraham, or Shah Rukh
There is no dearth of actors with chiselled bodies in Indian cinema today. It is almost a pre-requisite now for leading men, it seems. Be it young stars like Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan or seasoned veterans like Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn, most male stars boast of six-pack abs. Even actors from other industries – such as Ram Charan, Prabhas, and Suriya have time and again built impressive physique for films. But none of them was the first to do it. In fact, the first actor to do so predated all these stars by a few years, and more.
The first Indian actor to build six-pack abs
In 1987, Pankaj Parashar directed an action film titled Jalwa, which was heavily inspired by the Hollywood buddy cop action film Beverly Hills Cop. Made as a slick masala entertainer, the film starred Naseeruddin Shah, Archana Puran Singh, Pankaj Kapur, and others. What made the film unique was that for his role as a CID officer, Naseeruddin Shah went under a physical transformation, developed a chiselled physique, complete with six-pack abs. This was a novelty for Indian films, where side-actors and bodybuilders had boasted of this but never a lead star. In just a decade-and-a half though, this would become the norm for most stars.
Naseeruddin Shah and Archana Puran Singh in Jalwa
For younger readers, who have grown up on a steady diet of Naseeruddin Shah doing more ‘meaningful’ roles, this fact may come as a surprise. But the truth is that while the veteran actor did many thought-provoking and critically-acclaimed films (Mirch Masala, Nishant, Aakrosh, Mandi and many more), in the 80s and 90s, he was part of several commercial films as well. Apart from Jalwa, he was also seen in Malamaal, Mohra, Hero Hiralal, among others. Naseeruddin Shah is the winner of three National Awards – Best Actor for Sparsh and Paar in 1979 and 1984 respectively, and Best Supporting Actor for Iqbal in 2006.
Before Naseeruddi Shah, there had been a few actors who were known for their physique. Dara Singh was famously a world champion wrestler before he entered films. Similarly, Dharmendra was called India’s He-Man for his macho looks. However, while both these stars had solid, sculpted bodies, they preferred plain washboard abs over six-pack, which was not considered fashionable outside bodybuilding circles until the 90s. In that decade, models like Milind Soman and Rahul Dev popularised it before the likes of Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Arjun Rampal, and John Abraham took it mainstream.
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