Craze For ABS

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Craze For ABS

As Bollywood ups its demands on celebrities staying in shape, urban Indian men wake up to a new body approach. Beauty is now the credo, vanity the overriding motive. Everything goes, surgery to steroids to workouts, in the quest for a perfect six pack. Masculinity has turned a corner.
By Damayanti Datta

There stands the King. He looms above the city skyline, his usual perch, sending out special vibes to the brotherhood of the metro man below. For the first time, he poses in bare-chested glory: white shirt slipping off his shoulders, slab-like pecs glistening, six-pack abs rippling, biceps bulging. His tummy is so washboard, it’s almost unreal. His body is so lean, it’s almost an anatomy chart. And the bubbling crowd under the billboard is abuzz: is the Emperor without his clothes, or most of them, for real or is this just an illusion?

THE ORIGINAL
SALMAN KHAN
This often-shirtless hunk of a man started the body beautiful zeitgeist in Bollywood. He pumps iron three hours a day, cuts down on sleep time and often calls up his trainer in the wee hours for a session.

THE NATURAL
HRITHIK ROSHAN
A fitness fanatic, he dashes off to the gym at the drop of a hat, does 40 minutes of high-intensity weights and jogs or skips for 25 minutes every day. Whew! But he does all that for pleasure. On the food front? No butter, no ghee, no oil. Just grilled, boiled and roasted stuff.

THE BODY
JOHN ABRAHAM
Trying hard to copy that dashing good look? Don’t bother. Good genes combine with hours of cardio, crunches and kickboxing to give him that chiselled look. A health-freak and a vegetarian, his diet is not a foodie’s delight. But it keeps his dietician happy and his fabulous abs in shape. Looking good for the camera doesn’t come easy.

THE LATECOMER
SHAH RUKH KHAN
At 43, and despite a back problem, SRK has wrought something of a medical miracle with his latest, burnished, six-pack look. Denying rumours of artificial aids, his trainer says that ‘The Khan’ worked on a punishing regimen for three months.

SHAH RUKH KHAN

For the longest time, he rubbished the image of a bodybuilder for a hero. Now it’s hard to miss him in bare-chested glory—six-pack abs and a lean, mean, toned body. How did he do it? Cosmetic surgery? His trainer, Prashant Sawant, pooh-poohs the allegation. It was sheer hard work—two hours of rigorous training four times a week, low-carb, high-protein diet and supplements—that did the trick, it seems. Meantime, Shah Rukh has followed Madonna and bought a ‘magic’ Power Plate machine for Rs 7.5 lakh, to tone up his muscles with high-speed vibration. Didn’t his back problem get in the way? No, his back has healed. “Those who think it’s impossible to achieve what he has at his age, I can only say that you have to meet him to believe the level of energy he has.” The buffed-up look is here to stay.

Whatever the truth, the new Shah Rukh Khan-look sends a clear signal: masculinity has turned a corner. And a new body approach is doing the rounds. In television ads, on billboards, in newspapers and magazines, everywhere, there’s an Adonis—all chiselled muscle and washboard abs. Urban Indian men are not just pumping iron or downing steroids to look better. Now, surgeons say, a rising number are asserting their manliness by taking recourse to new, and even controversial, procedures in cosmetic surgery. “Masculinity is no longer what you thought it was,” says psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar. Body perfect is now the credo and vanity the overriding motive.

And right now, the King of Bollywood is the role model. Shah Rukh Khan always makes headlines. But few could have predicted the squall of gossip, speculation, admiration, criticism and racing pulses that would follow after he stripped off his shirt for his forthcoming film, Om Shanti Om. While Khan and his trainer mention a tough regimen—cardio and weight training, special low-carb, high protein diet, amino acid supplements and fat burners—the shadow of cosmetic surgery refuses to fade away. The media still can’t get enough of the superhero abs (“What’s the story behind Khan’s six-pack abs?”). Bollywood-watchers are busy guessing the message his pictures might send (“After all, he spent two decades proclaiming he was an actor, not a bodybuilder”). And fans are in a frenzy: “If SRK undergoes plastic surgery, how would you react?” asks a fan blog. “What has taken people by surprise is the unexpectedness of it,” says Jamal Shaikh, editor of Men’s Health. “Stars with stomachs of steel have been around for years. But when the leading actor suddenly shifts from an athletic to a super-sculpted look at the age of 42, many an eyebrow is raised.”

The AB Session
Check out some new procedures in cosmetic surgery:

ABDOMINAL ETCHING
Takes you a step beyond conventional fat removal through liposuction. This procedure is intended to give you a flatter, tighter stomach, with stronger muscle definition. Nothing is done on muscles, only excess fat and skin is removed.

BODY CONTOURING
After a major weight-loss, the skin becomes so stretched and loose that it hangs on legs, arms, stomach and chest. Body contouring is the surgical process that removes the extra skin.

FAT TRANSPLANT
It is a type of cosmetic surgery in which fat from one part of the body is used to fill wrinkle in another part, mostly your face. An injection is used to extract and inject fat from one part to the other. After extraction, the fat is processed to remove excess fluids. And then it is reinjected to the desired area.

ABDOMINOPLASTY
You get a washboard-flat stomach is achieved, by tightening or removing abdominal muscles. Does away with localised, exercise-resistant fat deposits, loosened and excessive muscles. Produces a more athletic appearance.

HIP THERAPY
It’s bottoms up for Indian men. For every seven women, there are two men coming for butt treatment today. Hip reduction, inch loss, toning and firming are what they seek. Some get scars and hair removed too through laser treatment.

FACE PROCEDURES
These procedures are undertaken for changes that occur in facial bones. Volume is built up in areas of bone loss with fillers, lifting, repositioning and finally by reducing inelastic tissues.

Patient Profile
RISING MALE FOOTFALL
MALE FEMALE
2006-2007 75% 25%
2005-2006 73% 27%
2004-2005 70% 30%
Steady rise of 5-7% in absolute numbers of men seeking surgery

MIDDLE CLASS DRIVING THE BOOM
Low income group: 9%
Middle income group: 67%
High income group: 25%

84% male patients are from urbanites
70% are socially and financially independent
88% men between 25-45 years are unmarried

WHO SEEK SURGERY?

Those who wish to simply enhance looks. Usually satisfied after surgery; show rise in self- esteem and confidence levels.

Those who believe surgery will turn their lives and fortunes around. Blame physical appearance for all personal misfortunes.

Those who are in unstable relationships. Wish to use surgery to save failing relationships. Need psychological counselling.

Those who are in showbiz, where appearance has a premium. Surgery calls for careful choice of techniques and procedures.

Those who have minimal deformity but disproportionate body anxiety. May be suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
(Source: First of its kind study on Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Trends; Dr Sunil Choudhary, Head of the Department, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, 600 cosmetic surgery patients, 2004-2007; Max Healthcare, New Delhi.

Doctors are not surprised. “There is a perceptible change in the male attitude towards reinventing their body image through cosmetic surgery. And it’s a made-to-order macho image,” says Dr Ramesh Kumar Sharma, who heads the department of plastic surgery, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. At the institute, a decade back, patients were mostly women.
“Surgical aids offer the made-to-order macho image demanded by today’s males.”
DR RAMESH K. SHARMA, CHANDIGARH

But the number of male clients has rapidly gone up in the last three to four years. “They now form one-fourth of the clientele,” says Sharma. Dr Narendra Pandya, consultant at Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai and a pioneer in plastic surgery in India, agrees: “I see at least three times more male cosmetic surgery patients than I did five years ago. Men have become more demanding and aggressive. They believe they have to look presentable to make the cut.” Dr S.S. Saha of Gangaram Hospital in Delhi, which gets about 40 such patients per month, notices the same trend. “Three years back, 90 per cent of our patients were women,” he says, “Today, 40 per cent are men.” At the Sagar Apollo Hospital in Bangalore, the ratio of men to women has increased in favour of the former. Dr M.S. Venkatesh, head of plastic surgery, says, “Men are taking over women in a number of procedures.” Dr Jyotsna Murthy of Ramachandra Hospital in Porur, Chennai, meets software professionals, engineers, businessmen, sports people, film personalities and media professionals. And they all have the same, insatiable desire to look good. “They belong to middle and high income groups, socialise everyday and the moment they gain weight, their confidence level dips. They will do whatever it takes to get back in shape.” Recently, Murthy performed a pectoral implant for a 28-year-old upcoming Tamil actor, increasing his chest size and shape by inserting implants made of solid silicone under the muscle.

SHEKHAR SUMAN

He got himself a new body at 47 and a brand new career to go with it. “There came a point when I grew bored with myself as I looked into the mirror,” says the man. Then in December 2006, he decided to turn over a new leaf. He weighed 76 kg when he hit the gym. But within three months, the scales pointed to 65. The current look is more about a lean frame rather than too much bulk. “Your muscles must be ripped and well-defined,” says the man. In the beginning, he used to train for seven days a week. He has brought it down to four to five days now. He also swims once a week and is a great fan of power yoga. How about his diet? Initially low on carb (in fact, no carb after 7 p.m.), now he has included salads, soups and brown bread in his diet. And his dreams? “That I may still be wearing a pair of Versace jeans when I’m 60 and have a Stallone-like body at 70.”

Indian males seem to be on the verge of a seismic shift. And they are willing to spend any amount (see box: The Cost of Looking Good) in pursuit of their personal look. Check out the numbers: over 70 per cent of India’s urban males visit a salon at least once a month for hairstyling, facials and skin-lifting treatment, says an AC Nielsen survey on 1,000 men in four metros, published last month. Three in five single men claim they try to look stylish at all times. An assocham survey on 5,000 consumers in August revealed that men’s spending on grooming is up by as much as 20 per cent in more than half of Indian families, thanks to the money spent on cosmetics, apparel and mobile phone bills. This does not surprise Sahil Shroff, 28, a Mumbai-based model who runs his own clothing store. “There’s a new premium on the body now,” he says. A fitness freak, he is now concentrating on developing his abs. “I’m in good shape and I am proud of it. Abs make everything in modelling,” he says.
“Men believe they have to look presentable to make the cut in today’s world.”
DR NARENDRA PANDYA, MUMBAI

In movies, heartthrobs—Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, John Abraham—are seen shirtless, with rippling pecs and lats; on fashion runways male models in skin-tight tanks and jackets, unbuttoned to flaunt washboard bellies, pace before cheering crowds. “The male body is being offered up for scrutiny,” adds Kakar. And men are scared of losing their hair, their muscle mass, their youth. Cosmetic surgeons, too, feel there’s a greater tendency to show off muscles among men these days. When Amit Sandhu, 25, moved to Delhi from Panipat, Haryana, “to become a model”, he faced a tough time. From “healthy”, he became “bulky”. “Suddenly I was no longer proud of my body.”
Best Kept Secrets of the Stars
Most celebrities deny they’ve had work done, but their doctors know the truth…
BOTOX: A non-surgical injection used to temporarily paralyse muscles that cause wrinkles, primarily around the eyes and forehead. Each injection lasts three to four months.
FILLERS: Soft-tissue fillers, such as Restalyne and collagen, are injected into the face to fill out a depressed area, such as the folds between the nose and lips.
VOLUMETRIC FACELIFT: Fat is taken from the abdomen and injected into the face, creating high cheekbones. For some, it is permanent, but others need to repeat it in five years.
ONE STITCH FACELIFT: A lunchtime procedure done under local anaesthesia. Loose skin is tightened and stitched once on each side of the face under the hairline. No bruising; effect can make patients look five years younger.
POWER BLEACHING: Doctors apply whitening gel to a patient’s teeth then place them for an hour in front of a light that promotes absorption. Sensitivity may be a problem for a day afterward.
WRINKLE RELEASE: Gets rid of stubborn, deep wrinkles. A needle is used to encircle a wrinkle with a metal thread beneath the skin. When pulled, the thread cuts fibres, pulling the wrinkle down and relaxing it.
PHOTO FACIAL: Intense, pulsed light used to remove brown spots and other sun damage from the face, neck and chest. Shrinks pores and decreases wrinkling.
HYPERBARIC OXYGEN FACIAL: Thesefacials force hyaluronic acid, an ingredient found naturally in the skin and known for its powerful antioxidants, into the skin through a high flow of oxygen.
MICRODERMABRASION: A sandblaster sprays tiny diamond or crystal particles on the face. Messy but gives stars’ skin that special polish.

SANDIP KAPUR
BODY CONTOURING

Before

After

His job is to train corporates and insurance agents. An alumni of La Martiniere, Kolkata, and Hindu College, Delhi, he spent a whole decade after graduation trying to consolidate his family business. His first foray into the corporate world made him realise the importance of looking good. “I could see people were shying away from me because at 115 kg, I looked overbearing,” he says. He started gymming regularly, but realised that they didn’t make him lose a lot of weight. This year, he went in for body contouring. Ten litres of fat have been removed from his tummy, sides and face. “Now that the inches have gone I feel like a million bucks,” he smiles.

The spectrum of new cosmetic procedures available to men reflects the trend. If the earlier cosmetic procedures sported functional names and provided useful services, new methods now are modelled on male anxieties and have fancy feel-good names. “Muscle sculpting” and “body contouring” are the buzzwords now. Go for “abdominal etching”, if you want a washboard-flat stomach. “Fat transfer” will augment various parts of your body—buttocks, biceps, calf muscles, hands—by surgically rounding them out with your own fat. A “facial rejuvenation” will build volume, filling, lifting, repositioning, and reducing inelastic facial tissue. With “body contouring”, you can remove unwanted skinfolds surgically. “The male body image is going beyond a mere doing away with excess fat,” points out Murthy. She is increasingly facing more demands for such treatments which include nose correction, breast reduction, hair restoration, eyelid correction, facelift and facial rejuvenation. Consider Jugal Bansal, 60. He was working for a public sector unit in 2001 when his wife noticed a crease between his eyes that made him look “angry”. He got even with his wrinkles—he went to a plastic surgeon to get the first of six Botox injections. “I felt more confident after I had it done,” says Bansal, who is now retired and about to have a facelift. “If there’s a nice way to remedy the effects of ageing, then I say, ‘Why not’?”
The Cost of Looking Good
Most popular procedures that men opt for…
ABDOMINAL CONTOURING: Young males who have lost weight through excessive dieting or gymming but are left with loose skinfolds requiring surgical removal. Roughly 15 per cent of men go under the knife for these. Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000
NOSE JOB: Rhinoplasty tops the makeover list. It now draws as many males as females. Involves sculpting the nose, reshaping and harmonising the face. North Indian men often have noses out of proportion to their face. Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000
BREAST REDUCTION: Enlarged breast is the bane of Indian men. Reason? Sedentary lifestyles and low fitness regimes or hormonal changes during puberty lead to fatty accumulation. At least 50 per cent of the clientele goes for it. Rs 40,000
CHIN AUGMENTATION: An increasingly popular cosmetic surgery for getting a stronger and well-defined chin and squarish jawline. Involves putting in a small synthetic implant over the natural bone to create a more suitable chin. Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000
EYELID LIFT: For older men. Gives a youthful look, improves eyelid function. Surgery corrects sagging or drooping eyelids and/or bags and bulges around the eyes, by removing excess skin and fat, if necessary. Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000
FACIAL REJUVENATION: Done in three-steps. The first is cream treatment, next chemical peel, and the third is laser treatment. Rs 70,000 to Rs 75,000
HAIR TRANSPLANTATION: A procedure in which hair is grafted from some other part of the body on to the scalp. Success depends on the area of the scalp that has lost hair. Rs 5,000 for 10 grafts, each graft measuring 4-5 mm in diameter.

“A majority of our patients are the affluent middle class; they are driving the boom.”
DR S.S. SAHA, DELHI
Life is looking good all over again for Sriram Iyer of Chennai. Early this year, the 31-year-old software professional had to travel to Chicago to make a technical presentation to an American client. With a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Iyer wasn’t worried about impressing the client with his technical prowess. But he was seriously concerned about his expanding waistline, gaunt face and the dark rings under his eyes. Four weeks before the trip, he decided to take matters in hand. “I was a bit apprehensive initially,” reveals Iyer, who underwent an abdominoplasty (to deal with localised, exercise-resistant fat deposits, loosened and excessive muscles) and a fat transfer (to correct the nasojugal groove under the lower eyelids). “But I was sure I wanted to look good.” Becoming 70 kg on a six-foot frame, Iyer is now flaunting a perfectly ironed-out face and stomach. “I love wearing T-shirts, but my girth used to make me feel terribly self-conscious,” he remembers. He is once again adding to his collection of Tees and is now looking for a life partner.

IMRAN WAJID
RHINOPLASTY

Twenty three-year-old Imran Wajid still remembers the excruciating pain inflicted by a swinging bat as he kept wicket in Class VI. The accidental swing of the bat also left his nose crooked for many years. “Every time I saw myself in the mirror, I felt awful. Though my folks at home always tried to reassure me, I would feel ill-at-ease in front of people,” he says. The decision to go for nose correction (rhinoplasty) recently was his own. He shelled out Rs 40,000 for the four-hour operation. But it was worth the effort. He had had a thorough nose job done by Dr M.S. Venkatesh (above), Sagar Apollo Hospital, Bangalore. “I nearly jumped with joy when I saw myself in the mirror,” he smiles. Dealing with clients and customers has become easier, feels the man who runs a construction company. “The operation made me a new person,” he says.

“Access, affluence and affordability are the key to the plastic surgery boom.”
DR M.S. VENKATESH, BANGALORE
In a fast-evolving world of demand and supply, statistics are rare. But Dr Sunil Choudhury, who heads the department of plastic & reconstructive surgery at Max Healthcare, Delhi, is painstakingly building up the patient profile. Sharing with INDIA TODAY the first-of-its-kind study on aesthetic plastic surgery trends, he says, “Delhi being a melting pot, the results of our study on 600 patients between 2004 and 2007 can be considered a true reflection of the Indian scenario.” Check out the data: in 2004, there were 25 per cent male vis-à-vis 75 per cent female patients. Male footfall today is 30 per cent, while female pace has slackened to 70. The surge in demand was fuelled largely by the age group of 25-45 years. “This is when one is most active and appearance matters a lot,” he says. About 84 per cent men are from urban areas and 88 per cent unmarried (as opposed to 43 per cent of unmarried women); 70 per cent are socially and financially independent (plastic surgery textbooks use the acronym simon for Single, Immature, Male, Overly-expectant, Narcissistic men). “If one were to believe the tabloids, plastic surgery would appear to be a luxury indulged in mainly by the elite,” mentions Choudhury. “In reality, 67 per cent of our patients come from the middle class. Consciousness of appearance, obviously, knows no class boundaries. The middle class is clearly driving the boom.”

And it’s not just the metro male. Young males are making a beeline for plastic surgeons in small towns too. Ahmedabad hardly had eight cosmetic surgeons till the mid-1990s. Today the number has crossed 50. So what’s sending the Ahmedabad male to plastic surgeons? “In most cases it is the girlfriend who tells the man to get an acne mark removed or to straighten out his nose,” says plastic surgeon Dr Hemant Saraiya. “Earlier men would try yoga to look better. Today they don’t hesitate to go for surgery and are also pretty clued-up about it,” observes another surgeon, Dr Shrikant Lagwankar. Earlier this year, Saraiya operated on Dilip Rana for flattening his belly. Rana had a lucrative job offer in the pipeline, where he needed to bare his torso. “Initially I felt I would lose the offer because of my belly bulge,” he says. “Finally a friend advised me to go in for an abdominoplasty.”
Men & Makeover
Urban Indian males are spending more on personal grooming
Indian men spend 20 minutes in front of the window on an average, compared to 18 minutes spent by women.
Over 70 per cent of India’s urban males visit a salon once a month for hairstyling, facials and skin-lifting treatments.
One in three men claims he visits a hair salon two to three times a month.
Three in five single men claim they try to look stylish at all times.
The market worth of personal grooming industry is Rs 6,950 crore, growing at a rate of 11 per cent.
Eleven per cent men indulge in facial treatments.
Men’s spending on grooming is up by 20 per cent.
In 2000, they spent less than Rs 1,000 per month in 2000 on personal products. It’s Rs 2,500 in over 50 per cent Indian households now.
Male consumers tend to spend more on cosmetics (Rs 300-500 more per month than women).
The target profile of most personal care product companies is the urban male between 25 and 45 years of age.
Spending on men’s grooming products is slated to rise by 24 per cent in the next five years.
Men’s fairness cream market is one of the biggest in the world, growing at 10 per cent.
(Source: AC Nielsen survey on male grooming conducted amongst 1,000 Sec A and B men in four cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad in September 2007).

RAHUL BHATT
SIX-PACK ABS

Before

After

He knows Bolly-wood’s bodily norms inside out: as a fitness pro in Mumbai, he coaches a swarm of Bollywood aspirants. As veteran filmmaker, Mahesh Bhatt’s son, he is privy to the pulls and pressures of the tinsel town. “This is a world of harsh judgments, where appearance counts for all.” He routinely comes across people who ruin their health trying to acquire chiselled looks—either on anabolic steroids or cosmetic procedures. His love for bodybuilding has helped him change from an overweight teenager to a man with a stomach of steel.

What do men want? Unlike their female counterparts, the male clients are more clear about the new image they want, say medics. Enlarged breasts (gynecomastia) is a big issue for Indian men, and across all age groups. In PGIMER, 50 per cent male patients come for this. Another set of younger males need ‘body contouring’ surgery for loose skinfolds, left as a result of excessive gymming or dieting. Nearly 60 per cent of men between age 35 and 45 ask for this at Gangaram. Others opt for liposuction to get rid of excess and stubborn fat in lower abdomen. Men also going for tightening of abdominal muscles for a stronger tummy. Making the chin more prominent and, thus, giving the face a more chiselled look is yet another demand for the 35-plus brigade. Removing frown lines, wrinkles around the eyes and lifting a sagging face are age-related problems, with patients in the 45-plus age bracket. “Most men want to get a sharper look,” says Kolkata-based aesthetic surgeon Dr Manoj Khanna. And they are ready to go in for minor procedures to remove the slightest of defects. “They would want to do away with a mark or a mole even if those don’t look abnormal.” Says Venkatesh: “Eyelid surgery and facial rejuvenation are the other procedures commonly asked for by young men, professionals, students and aspiring models.”

Even traditional workouts have changed to meet the new demand. “India’s strongest man” Manoj Chopra trains at Steves Gym in Bangalore, one of the city’s premier fitness centres founded by Stephen S.D. Earlier, most males would do the regular treadmill-trainer-cycle routine. Today, there are more males going in for muscle sculpting exercise routines than those on the machines. Most of them want to take advantage of the several scientific methods available for shaping up the body.
The Age Slab
The age spectrum for cosmetic surgery procedures (in years)
17-25
Enlarged breasts
Scar removal
Nose job
25-35
Face and body contouring
35-45
Making the chin more prominent
Body contouring, abdominal liposuction, abdominoplasty, abdominal etching
45+
Lines and wrinkles, especially around the eyes
Face Rejuvenation
All age groups
Enlarged breasts
Making the chin more prominent
Nose job

But self-image is just a starter. “There’s no end to the compulsions that make men seek a cosmetic procedure,” says Dr Milind Wagh, consultant plastic aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon with the Hiranandani and Bhatia hospitals in Mumbai. “From job interviews to marriage, pressure from peers and the opposite sex to the desire to follow the ways of a much-admired Bollywood hero.” Choudhury agrees: “The best candidates are those who wish to simply improve their appearance. They are usually satisfied after a surgery and their self-esteem and confidence levels visibly shoot up. Then there are those who come from the world of showbiz, where appearance counts for all. There is another category: of men who blame their present physical appearance for all personal misfortunes. Men in unhappy relationships also use surgery to save their failing ties. About 3-5 per cent men suffer from minimal deformity but have disproportionate concerns about the way they look.

Everyone is into instant abs and the SRK look. But body obsession doesn’t really pay. It’s well documented that for women, it often leads to extreme dieting and exercise. How widespread are eating disorders among men? Hard to say. Men are notoriously hesitant to seek psychological treatment, particularly for body-image disorders. “Young men with poor body image and high drive for muscularity often carry the burden of low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression,” warns Saha. In addition, they may be more at risk of abusing anabolic steroids, the health consequences of which range from coronary heart disease risk, to kidney and liver damage, liver cancer, high blood pressure, reduced immune system functioning to even infertility.

The urge for ‘The Body’, however, is compelling enough for men to cough up whopping sums in pursuit of their personal look. With technology reaching new levels of sophistication, a third-generation ultrasonic liposuction machine may leave the patient with a bill of Rs 1.2 lakh. But the spiralling costs are balanced out by state-of-the-art technology and easy access. “The advent of finer suture materials, refinement in surgical techniques, the availability of good quality plastic surgery implants and simplification of surgical techniques have made a difference in the surgical outcomes,” says Venkatesh. Moreover, most cosmetic body procedures today are done as day care procedures. “A lunch time nose job and a tea time liposuction and body contouring are the makeover procedures of the present day,” he says.
Workouts that Work
The new fitness mantras for the perfect body
4-5-6-6-5-4: Split workouts over three machines: spend four minutes running on the treadmill, then five minutes on the elliptical and six minutes on the stair machine. Repeat in reverse order.
PUSH AND PULL: Balance pushing and pulling exercises to give your body a full workout. If you’re doing bench presses, for instance, make time for pull-ups too.
ROUNDHOUSE KICKS: For the lower back, lower abs and coordination. Stand straight with a chair at your right side. Hold on to the chair as you lift your left leg so it’s parallel to the floor. Rotate body, leading with belly button, and kick across the plane.
ACTIVE STRETCHING: Jog around the gym, followed by active stretching. Instead of sitting down and pushing or pulling on your muscles, which can cause injury and reduce your muscles’ power output, try doing 10 high kicks, high steps or split squats.
50 PUSH-UPS A DAY: If you really want to change your body, try doing 50 push-ups a day. The key is to do them correctly, pushing up from your chest, not your shoulders. Also, be careful not to bow your back. Spend five seconds on the way down and another five on the way up, keeping your stomach tight.

In a way, men have arrived late to the party. Beauty ceased to be a myth for women ever since millions sat glued to television sets to watch the crowning of Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai in world beauty pageants in the ’90s. “Up until the ’70s, beauty contests used to be peripheral affairs, only covered by specialised women’s magazines,” wrote Madhu Kishwar, the editor of Manushi, in her 1995 essay, When India Missed The Universe. Today Miss India clones—narrow waist, long legs, narrow hips, glossy hair, rosebud mouth, spaghetti straps—are everywhere. In glossy ads, on sidewalks, in beauty parlours, outside multiplexes, in men’s desires and their own dreams.

Having a male body is much like having a bank account, wrote novelist John Updike. As long as it’s healthy, you don’t think much about it. Clearly Updike never met Shah Rukh Khan. Nor would he recognise this particular moment in the biography of masculinity where looking good can be counter-intuitive. Today’s buff-and-ready man stands squarely at the intersection of beauty, vanity and health. But in forging new standards for himself, he has opened up a Pandora’s box: will unrealistic images lead to greater body image dissatisfaction, mental health issues, and threats to healthy physical functioning? Will men remember to enjoy the body they have in their drive for the perfect abs? The jury is still out on that but for now, SRK reigns—absolutely.

-with Kimi Dangor, Akhila Kirshnamurthy, Nandini Vaish, Swagata Sen, Ramesh Vinayak, Uday Mahurkar and Stephen David