Actor Tanishaa Mukerji recently opened up about the intense physical transformation she underwent for Neal ‘n’ Nikki, revealing that filmmaker Aditya Chopra had pointed out her “love handles” and asked her to tone her body for the role. The actor shared that she then followed a strict fitness and diet routine to achieve the desired look, but the demanding regimen eventually resulted in a hormonal imbalance.
Tanishaa gets candid
Recently, Tanishaa looked back at working on Neal ‘n’ Nikki during a conversation with Mamaraazzi. She revealed that Aditya Chopra had asked her to undergo a major body transformation for the role, and the intense diet and workout routine eventually led to a hormonal imbalance.
During the conversation, Tanishaa mentioned that Aditya Chopra had called her in for a screen test for the film. She confessed that he had earlier given her career advice, which she did not follow at the time, but during this project, she promised to follow his guidance “blindly.”
Tanishaa shared that during the film’s first photoshoot, Aditya pointed out that the role required her to have a toned physique, following which she immediately began working on her transformation.
“My first photo session for Neal ‘n’ Nikki, I had all these love handles, and he was like, ‘No, you can’t look like this. You need to be toned.’ After that first photo session, I just went crazy, and I transformed my body because I was so focused on reaching that ultimate goal, and then he was like, ‘Yes, this is Nikki’,” Tanishaa recalled.
Speaking about her fitness regimen at that time, Tanishaa said she focused on maintaining the right balance between exercise and diet, and once she figured out a routine that suited her, she stuck to it with complete discipline.
However, she pointed out that any kind of strict routine for the body cannot be followed for a long time, because “if you try to keep it, you would have a hormonal imbalance, which is what happened to me.”
Neal ‘n’ Nikki was a romantic comedy directed by Arjun Sablok, starring Uday Chopra and Tanishaa Mukerji in the lead roles, and Abhishek Bachchan in a special appearance. It was produced by Yash Chopra under the banner Yash Raj Films and was released on December 9, 2005 amid mixed to negative reviews. It did not do well commercially either.
The actor also spoke about the negative feedback, saying she did not take the criticism to heart and tried to understand it in a “positive way.”
About Tanishaa’s career
Tanishaa, daughter of Tanuja, made her grand Bollywood debut with Sssshhh in 2003 opposite Karan Nath and Dino Morea. The film, however, failed at the box office. She went on to star in Sarkar, Neal ’n’ Nikki, and the Tamil hit Unnale Unnale, which earned her a Vijay Award nomination. She gained massive public attention in 2013 as the first runner-up on Bigg Boss 7, where her relationship with Armaan Kohli became a hot topic. She went on to participate in Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 7 (2016) and was also seen as a contestant on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 11. She later appeared as a judge on the comedy show Gangs of Haseepur. Tanishaa was last seen in the 2024 film Luv You Shankar