Before the shooting of Kites was about to commence, Hrithik Roshan travelled to various countries around the world in search of a perfect treatment for his knee injury which had been damaged after the dangerous stunts done by action hero in various films.
For more than five months Hrithik gave his knee daily 4 hours of therapy and medicines amongst many other things, but the healing process was rather slow and the shooting dates of Kites were fast approaching.
Hrithik reached Santa Fe from Los Angeles after a knee operation just two weeks before the shooting was about to start. His knee was still not okay and to top it all the shooting of action scenes was scheduled to start first, which Hrithik kept opposing since the planning stage.
Describing the experience of his stay in Santa Fe, Hrithik says, “When I reached Santa Fe, I was not in a position to shoot for Kites. But then 2 weeks passed and something magical happened. On the first day of the shoot my pain was down to 50% and after the first week it was down to 10% and the next week it was almost gone.”
He adds, “I thought all the things I did to heel my knee may have converged together. I also heard from people that Santa Fe is surrounded by magnetic mountains and people from over the world come there to get healed, so it was destiny that we chose Santa Fe to begin the film. Santa Fe actually became the reason I did the film. By the end of the second week I was running.”
Although his knee was healing well, it still didn’t allow him to do cardiovascular exercises. That was a bit of a problem because for the schedule in Santa Fe, not only was the actor expected to shoot for action scenes, but soon thereafter was also expected to shoot for a bare-chested scene with actress Barbara Mori. So to get into shape with very little time in hand, Hrithik decided to follow a strict diet. “I was basically living on Egg whites, almonds and peanuts because I had just 3 weeks and all those days I was shooting, so I had no time for workout on sets.”
“I had to eat a lot to maintain the muscle mass but had to be very careful to not take too much or too little of carbohydrates, otherwise then I wouldn’t have any strength to last through out day while shooting and then to come and work out again. So I just had to take the right amount and I just let my body guide me and eventually it worked out.”
Kites releases worldwide on May 21st!
Photo credit: Reliance Big Pictures
