No matter how packed his day is, PVR Cinemas’ Managing Director Ajay Bijli never misses out on his workout. And he also expects his employees to look fighting fit. The marathoner shares his fitness mantra with Aabhas Sharma at his home gym.
Days before the 2012 Airtel Delhi Half Marathon last week, PVR Cinemas’ Managing Director Ajay Bijli had a viral infection. Though a bit skeptical about participating in this year’s event, Bijli, a seasoned marathoner (he has run seven so far), was adamant that he would run. “I thought I would run for 16 km or so and walk the rest.” But not only did he surprise himself by going all the way, he managed to complete the 21-km run in 2 hours and 23 minutes. For Bijli, however, fitness is not just about running and training for marathons.
We are meeting early in the morning at his family home on Rohtak road in New Delhi. Bijli, an early riser, is almost done with his workout. He spends an hour in the gym daily. The gym in his house can give competition to any fitness chain and is equipped with free weights, a cross trainer, a fancy treadmill, a Smith machine, a lateral pulldown machine for the back and a chin-up machine. It also has a music system and a television on which Bijli catches up on the news while sweating it out. Until recently, he wouldn’t carry his mobile phone into the gym. But now that his two daughters are in US, he sometimes talks to them while running on the treadmill.
Fit and lean, 40-something Bijli is dressed in track pants and a Nike t-shirt. He says his approach to a healthy and fit body revolves around four things: food, flexibility, muscle and cardio. He does a combination of weight training and cardio vascular exercises every day and makes sure he runs at least 10-12 km on the treadmill. Fitness has been his way of life since he was in school. As a student of Modern School, Barakhamba Road, he would actively play squash, cricket and basketball. “Cricket in those days wasn’t a fitness-centric sport, but I loved it,” he says. Later, it was basketball that helped him gain admission to Hindu college and he regularly played for the college team. Even now, he has a basketball hoop at home where he plays at least 300-400 shots a week with his son. But this, he says, is more of an exercise to spend time with his son.
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Bijli’s fitness mantra extends to his business as well. His company today has 197 screens in 44 cinemas across 13 states. And he makes sure that the people holding charge of the counters are fit. “We are an entertainment company and these people are the face of our company. They should look fit and healthy,” he declares. He message to his employees is: “Managing yourself well should be a pre-requisite to managing people.”
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Having grown up in a Punjabi household on a rich diet of paranthas and puris, he recalls the time in school when his waistline touched about 36 inches and he didn’t like it. So now he doesn’t eat any red meat or shell fish — which means no lobster, prawns or crabs. Instead, he chooses to have grilled chicken and fish. Lunch, of mainly vegetables, comes from home every day. “It’s boring food like zucchini and salads,” he laughs. Breakfast is generally egg white and toast and dinner comprises grilled chicken or fish. “There's no point sweating it out in the gym if you don’t watch what you eat.” Fortunately, he says that he doesn’t have a sweet tooth and rarely craves for anything sweet.
Though he’s heavily into gyming, he has never had a personal trainer — but for the one time he had an Austrian trainer for six weeks who helped him with nutrition and certain workout routines. He, however, intends to engage a personal trainer soon.For six-pack abs? “I don’t want six-pack abs,” he chuckles before adding, “[it’s] just to get some advice from time to time so that my workout routine does not get too monotonous.”
Fitness lessons can come from anywhere and anyone. And Bijli keeps his eyes and ears open for them. He reads a lot of fitness and health magazines. And, he says, “If I visit a gym when I am travelling, I am like a student and I try to learn whatever I can from people there.”
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Though his schedule is hectic, he never misses a workout session. His day begins around 6.30 am followed by an hour at the gym. To avoid the traffic rush, he sets out early, around 8.30 am, and is back home by evening. Being in the entertainment business, he feels that he has the added pressure of looking good and remaining fit. But even if he didn’t, he says, “I would have been into training and fitness anyway.”
The Delhi marathon, says Bijli, is his favourite. He ran the Mumbai marathon once but didn’t like the route too much. “Too many flyovers and uneven routes.” And though he enjoys running in the open more than in the gym, it’s not possible to do so on the busy Rohtak road where his house is located. So he runs out in the open when he is travelling abroad. At home, he has a high-end treadmill with the right amount of cushioning to prevent any muscle wear and tear.
These days during his workout he intermittently catches the US presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and remarks, “Look how fit these guys are.”
He attributes his passion for fitness and discipline to school life. “We are all taught in school how things should be done at a certain time only. I have stuck to that belief as far as fitness is concerned,” he says.
The day we meet, Bijli has suffered a muscle injury and is, therefore, taking it easy. But that does not mean skipping or missing out on his exercise. All he’s done is cut down on the rigorous exercises. Before he heads off to switch his sweat pants for corporate attire, I ask him if he has a fitness role model. “A lot of people actually. I look at the actors and see how fit they are and get inspired. I look at people who run more than I do and they’re an inspiration for me.”