Mumbai, May 17 Actor Kunal Sharma, who plays Vikram Ranwal in the upcoming action-drama “Maqam”, has talked about his transformation in the film and said that the role pushed him to his physical and mental limits.
Shot across Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad, Kunal was part of almost every schedule.
“I play Vikram Ranwal, known as the ‘King of the Ring’ in the underground fighting circuit. When I heard about the role, I was thrilled… but also terrified,” he said.
The description demanded a massive, muscular body. With limited time and a tight budget, hiring a personal trainer was out of the question.
“I guess my engineer mind helped me a lot,” he said. I enrolled in a fitness trainer and nutritionist course. While learning the theory, I applied it directly to my own transformation.”
Kunal turned himself into a convincing fighter through relentless training and discipline. But building the body was just half the battle.
“The next challenge was creating the internal world of Vikram. I’m not an MMA fighter, and the climax had a 10-12 minute fight sequence in the ring,” he said.
“There wasn’t enough time to master the sport, so I focused on posture, stance, and studying MMA through global cinema.”
On set, Kunal leaned on every resource—friends from the combat world, online footage, and the support of action director Amin Khatib. The shoot took a toll on him physically.
“I had bruises, broken bones, and it took me 4–6 weeks to fully recover after the climax fight,” he says.
“But after the trailer dropped, and I started getting praise, all that pain vanished.”
Kunal has worked in films such as Hawaii Five-0, Prison Break and The Kids Are All Right, directed by Lisa Cholodenko, which is among the first mainstream movies to show a same-sex couple raising two teenagers.
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