Mumbai, Jul 11 (IANS): 'Shamshera' director Karan Malhotra, who is awaiting the release of his film, along with Ranbir Kapoor's trainer Kunal Gir recently shared the idea behind the actor's ripped look with a six pack. In the film, Ranbir plays the dual role of the titular character and his son Balli.

Elaborating on the same, Karan reveals: "Ranbir has worked very hard to own up to the roles of Shamshera and Balli. The idea behind him building a particular physique for the film came from the fact that I wanted the audiences to feel his internal strength and resolve every time they saw him on screen."

He further mentioned, "So, keeping that core idea in mind, I manoeuvred Ranbir towards building up a body which added more strength to his character in the film."

For the director, "The intention was never for his physique to be a distraction but an asset to his characters."

Kunal added that the target was to make RK look athletic, not too bulky as his character was like Robin Hood.

Shedding light on Ranbir's fitness regime and his diet plan, Kunal said: "We had to keep the rustic, raw appeal that came along with that character. Hence, he is athletic and strong looking. Ranbir had five meals a day. He was on a high protein and low carb diet and went through rigorous training five days a week. He had a cheat meal only once a week."

He added, "Each (training) session was an hour long followed by a quick 5 minutes high intensity cardio session we called 'truck'. It's where the treadmill was turned off and RK was to hold the handles of the machine and drive the belt with his legs. The shooting was mostly outdoors and RK had to deal with a lot of heat and dust. So, we worked on some breathing exercises that helped him stay calm and endure long and strenuous shooting conditions."

Shamshera is produced under the banner of YRF. It will debut in theatres on July 22, 2022 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.