What goes into keeping stars fit and fabulous

Brut India

After an accident left her bedridden for months, this pilot found new wings in yoga. Anshuka Parwani, who now trains Bollywood's biggest stars, talked to Brut about what they are like as students.  : Anshuka Yoga

Transcript

00:00Hi, this is Anushka Parwani for Brute.

00:13I remember that the person who was then teaching Kareena called me one morning because I'm

00:22a very early riser.

00:23I remember it was about 5 a.m. and she said, Hey, I've called you because I know you're

00:29the only person who's awake right now.

00:32Unfortunately, I'm unable to go to this particular class.

00:35Can you please go and do it for me?

00:37And I had no idea that I was going to Bebo's house.

00:40For a few seconds, I was like, Oh, wow.

00:43I did not expect the biggest star in the country to be my first student and my first class

00:48ever.

00:49But I also remember that a few minutes into the class, I completely forgot who I was teaching.

00:56There were so many learnings from her.

00:58I remember when she just conceived, going through the first prenatal phase with her.

01:04So just sharing that everyday journey, whether it means picking up on the little discomforts

01:12that people face during pregnancy, whether it was learnings about how the body is changing,

01:19whether it was the learnings of the different hormonal changes throughout the nine months

01:24that we went through.

01:25And I remember then shortly after, we had a very, very practical deadline where we wanted

01:31to get back in shape and do it correctly.

01:33That is definitely one of her favorite asanas.

01:44She definitely enjoys it.

01:46Now the thing is that it is an advanced asana.

01:49I remember it was a moment of putting in a lot of hours to get there.

01:54So I remember when we finally achieved that asana, we were both overjoyed.

01:59And then shortly after that, Alia was carrying her baby.

02:03And during prenatal yoga, you're not allowed to get into deep hyperextensions of the spine.

02:09Now after you have a baby, you have to first start working on working your abdominal muscles,

02:15making sure they are fused correctly together, because you do lose a lot of strength and

02:22the sort of flexibility in the spine and the core.

02:27So when we started building those abdominals up, the back feels tight.

02:32Soon after you deliver, you're also feeding for a while.

02:35You're also carrying a child, which sort of changes your posture as well.

02:39This happens to everybody who's really had a baby.

02:42So I remember when she first achieved it, and I did share it on my social media.

02:48People everywhere from social media and my students in the studio and outside coming

02:53to me and saying, hey, we did the Alia pose.

02:56Again, we had to start from the ground up.

02:58And this is the second time that we've achieved this.

03:03Not only was she practicing with me, but she was also practicing to imbibe that character

03:09of being a yoga teacher on screen.

03:11So the conversations were extremely different.

03:14I sat down and already designed a program because I know that DP wanted to be the character

03:21100%.

03:22Forward fold and switch.

03:26Although I've been on various Bollywood movie sets, I was always accompanying the actor

03:32as the actor's wellness expert.

03:35But I was never creatively involved until Gehraiya.

03:38I remember DP and I working on certain choreographies for the film and realizing how the body looks

03:45versus how the body is feeling versus what is correct, traditionally and authentically

03:52because we wanted to stick to that.

03:54So just sitting on that for multiple hours, doing multiple sessions.

04:01She enjoys a good practice.

04:03She loves her challenging poses.

04:05She loves the inversions.

04:06Again, if you see on my social media, we're always doing like headstands and handstands

04:12and arm balances.

04:13So we really sort of push the strength bar.

04:15Ananya never misses a pranayama practice at all.

04:19She sits in stillness and she has a very strong meditative practice.

04:24The second she started yoga, she just fell in love with the practice.

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