FILM STAR: HRITHIK ROSHAN

' I ALMOST DIDN'T MAKE IT'

Hrithik Roshan's bad knee had almost urined his chances of doing kites

Kites, directed by Anurang Basu, has the most-awaited contemporary screen pair Bollywood's Hrithik Roshan wooing Mexi-can beauty Barbara Mori. But, it is a film that Hrithik almost never made. Years of strenuous daning and doing breath-taking action for films like Krrish, Dhoom 2 and Jodhaa Akbar, that got the superstar every award xorth its metal, also left Hrithik with excruciating knee pain. and just before he was to start work on this home production, the actor found himself on crutches. ! I hadn't okayed a single script after Jodhaa Akbar, " says Hrithik. " I was sitting free with a bad knee which had crippled me for about six months. But the script of kites got my adrenaline pumping."

When he realised that he had to bare his torso in the film; he panicked. "Because of my knee. I hadn't been doing cardio and had gained weight, "says the actor famous for his ripped body. "And if I was to appear bare-chested, my fans would expect nothing but perfection from me. so I devised new ways to shed the fat. Not being able to run, jump or skip, I used to just pick up a five pound dumbbell and do arm curves for 45 minutes. That became my cardio workout."