First it was Shah Rukh Khan, who made us cringe and gasp in equal measure when he revealed his ripped middle-aged torso.  Then perfectionist Aamir Khan did one better, revealing a muscular physique (complete with bad-boy tats) - we thought wasn’t possible for his little boy frame to carry.  Now it seems that young British Desi’s are following suit and hitting the protein shakes in search of the body beautiful.The BBC recently explored the issue of Bollywood muscle in light of news that an increasing number of young British Asian men are hitting the gym to achieve their desire to be muscle-bound Adonis’s. According to them, one of the UK’s biggest suppliers of training supplements, Bulk Supplements Direct, says it is seeing a massive rise in the number of Asian men buying supplements off them. Owner Kunal Patel said that in 2008 the company saw an average 21% increase in business month-on-month from the Asian community.

After reporting a busy start to 2009, this trend looks set to continue through the recession and beyond, meaning that gym memberships, personal trainers and supplement suppliers can thank our Asian lads for seeing through this economic downturn. However, how much muscle is too much?  And is the bulk really easy to maintain?  After all, it’s within John Abraham’s interests to spend half his life in the gym; let’s face it, his body is his fortune.  But is it really feasible, or fair, to expect average Joe Joshim or simple Shahid from the Cash and Carry to follow suit?  Should the body beautiful be their top priority?

It comes down to perception.  Bollywood is aesthetically driven.  The entire industry is based upon showing exceptionally good looking people to us mere mortals.  Like one good friend once put it: “I don’t go to the cinema to see ugly people, there’s enough of them in the real world.”   Bollywood’s boys are only just catching on to what Hollywood has shown us for years: while Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey were cashing in on their six-packs, Govinda was playing the fat dancer.  However, whilst Christian Bale achieved the perfect level of muscle in American Psycho, he was more than happy to lose it all for his craft in The Machinist.  It’s fairly unlikely that Shah Rukh Khan would go to such extremes and lose the fruits of his hard earned labour, unless of course size zero hits Bollywood’s men as well as women.

Like all things, the muscular competition between the stars is a fad, like the perm, that will pass with fashion.  No doubt, in perhaps 10 years time, Bollywood heroes would be happy to gain or lose weight as their roles require. But in the meantime, the trend for beefing-up is filtering to the British Asian boys, who think, like Shah Rukh, they can become Adonis’ overnight.  Personally, I think SRK looked better before…

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