When Dangal star Aamir Khan met his wrestling heroes on home ground

A surprise move caught wrestling coach Kripa Shankar Bishnoi off guard as soon as he entered the residence of his most famous pupil in suburban Mumbai on Monday afternoon.

Aamir Khan, for whom Bishnoi had choreographed sequences in the runaway hit, Dangal, jokingly greeted him with a leg hold as soon as he stepped inside the star’s house.

“Paer pe lapak gaye. Lekin maine khoobsurati se defend kiya (he had me in a leg hold, but I defended beautifully),” the wrestling coach, who was roped in to guide actors in wrestling techniques for the 2016 Nitesh Tiwari film, told The Indian Express.

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During 90 minutes of starry magic that followed, over cups of tea and snacks, Aamir, Bishnoi, and a dozen wrestlers and coaches talked about wrestling, movies and how Dangal had helped bust their rowdy image, among other filmy stereotypes, besides bringing wrestlers global respectability.

A proud Bishnoi recollected how the actor told everyone about how he had helped him kick an old habit. “Aamir told everyone how I got him to quit smoking. I used to get very angry with him for smoking and told him that I would not coach him if he did not stop smoking,” he says.

The wrestlers, who were in Mumbai for an Indian Railways preparatory camp, had come from all over India. While some were armed with rehearsed birthday wishes, conveyed shyly in stuttered Urdu ahead of Aamir’s 60th birthday on March 14, the others recalled watching his first film Holi, on Doordarshan, commiserating with Aamir over the film never getting a theatrical release.

Aamir, in turn, did his best to impress them by holding forth on why Indians did well in freestyle wrestling, but not in Greco-Roman, an upper body-only variation of the sport.

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The wrestlers, who were in Mumbai for an Indian Railways preparatory camp, had come from all over India. (Express Photo) The wrestlers, who were in Mumbai for an Indian Railways preparatory camp, had come from all over India. (Express Photo)

The actor even gave a demonstration of a takedown he had mastered, seeking approval for the technique from the female wrestlers. “Aamir also had suggestions on how to improve our medal count (in Greco-Roman wrestling),” Bishnoi says.

When the Railways training camp in Mumbai was announced, ahead of the nationals, Bishnoi says he sent a text to the actor, the star of multiple hits, including Andaz Apna Apna, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Awwal Number and Lagaan. “He replied within seconds, giving us a time slot and saying, ‘turant aa jao (come quickly)’. However, we had practice in that time slot and he left for Panchgani. Though our timing didn’t match at first, we finally met on March 10,” Bishnoi says, adding that the group included Arjuna and Dronacharya award winners.

As the group gathered around the actor, after pleasantries had been exchanged, Aamir sat cross-legged on the floor. Calling Aamir a “zabardast insaan (fantastic person)” due to his simplicity, wrestler Rakesh Dubay from Mhow, Indore, recalled “fumbling a little” while wishing the actor in Urdu. “Later, Aamir sir said I should have told him about a women’s international (wrestling event) we had in Indore. He said he would have happily turned up to watch it,” Dubay adds.

The actor recollected how former world championship medallist Pooja Dhanda, while auditioning for the movie, had recommended Bishnoi’s name for the position of a coach.

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“To portray a three-minute fight with exact paintrey (tactics), keeping in mind cinema’s requirements, is something Kripa understood while choreographing us,” Aamir is heard saying in a video of the meeting. Wrestler Shokinder Tomar says the community was at pains to convey to the world that they were not “rowdies or villains”.

In town for the treatment of a broken knee, Tomar says, “One of my fellow wrestlers told Aamir sir that we were grateful to him for not portraying us in a negative light. In earlier movies, wrestlers would be shown as these pot-bellied ogres with large moustaches, red eyes and up to no good. We were shown as people everyone should be scared of, ones only capable of gundagardi (rowdy behaviour). But Aamir sir’s character (in Dangal) wasn’t like that. He showed the genuine difficulties we go through.”

Stating that wrestling is not given importance “even abroad”, Tomar adds, “Dangal brought wrestling respectability in foreign lands too.”

“Wrestling is not like cricket. Many people find us scary and the sport is going through a tough time. It was good of Bollywood to not show us as villains,” another wrestler noted.

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During the meeting, many wrestlers gave the actor their honest opinion about his movies. “It was mostly good things. I felt bad when he told me that Holi never got released in theatres. I told him that I had seen it on Doordarshan and what I thought of the film,” Dubay says.

Wrestler Sujeet Maan was impressed on seeing the Bollywood superstar speak to the families of several Railways wrestlers based in remote villages on video calls. “He asked us about our families. We advised him on healthy weight cuts,” Mann says.

Calling Aamir “down to earth”, Mann recalls, “He came down to the ground floor to see us off…without chappals (slippers), barefoot.”

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