“Had Dangal Girls Been Wrestlers, They Could’ve Won Olympic Medals,” Says Coach Kripa Shankar

‘Dangal‘ is not only doing extremely well at the box office but is also getting rave reviews. Not only Aamir Khan but his on-screen daughters – Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra – too are getting a lot of appreciation. And, man they put in a lot of hard work while portraying Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari in the Nitesh Tiwari directorial!

But, the man who trained the ‘Dangal’ girls and on-screen Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) – Kripa Shankar Bishnoi thinks the two actresses have a really good shot at winning medals at Olympics.

“Had they been wrestlers, they could have won an Olympic medal. They are extremely talented. Wrestling needs athletes like Sanya and Fatima.”

The Arjuna Award winner and 2005 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship Gold Champion, at first, couldn’t believe that he was approached to train Aamir and the girls for Dangal.

 

He didn’t leave any stone unturned while training Aamir, Sanya or Fatima.

“I wanted to give Sanya and Fatima a mirror image of Geeta and Babita. The Phogat sisters first run for an hour and 45 minutes and then engage in one hour of cross country running. Fatima and Sanya used to go through the same.”

Not only that, he even made them go through imitation training, too, where the girls would imitate the techniques to train.

 

With such an extensive training, injuries were bound to happen. And, when Fatima had a fractured rib bone and the doctor advised her 40 day rest, Bishnoi cited,

 

Did they fare well on the big screen?

“I had already seen the screening and the rough cut of the movie. After returning to Indore, I watched the movie again. It was an astonishing performance by Fatima and Sanya. I was so delighted after seeing their skills and acting.”

We have laid eyes on the video where Aamir trains with Kripa Shankar and pick the wrestling moves. We can’t wait to see some behind-the-scenes videos of the Dangal ladies, too, in prep mode.

News Source: News 18