Aamir Khan Surprises Wrestling Coach Kripa Shankar Bishnoi at His Mumbai Home

On Monday afternoon, wrestling coach Kripa Shankar Bishnoi was caught off guard when he visited the home of his most famous pupil, actor Aamir Khan, in suburban Mumbai. As soon as Bishnoi stepped inside, Aamir jokingly greeted him with a leg hold.

Bishnoi, who had trained Aamir for the hit movie Dangal, laughed and said, “He had me in a leg hold, but I defended beautifully.”

The two spent 90 minutes together, enjoying tea and snacks while discussing wrestling, movies, and the impact Dangal had on changing the way wrestlers were viewed. Bishnoi shared how Aamir once told the group how he helped the actor quit smoking. “I used to get very angry with him for smoking and told him that I would not coach him if he did not stop smoking,” said Bishnoi.

During the visit, wrestlers from all over India, who were in Mumbai for an Indian Railways preparatory camp, shared birthday wishes for Aamir ahead of his 60th birthday on March 14. Some wrestlers shyly spoke in Urdu, while others remembered watching Aamir’s first film, Holi, on Doordarshan and discussed how the film never had a theatrical release.

Aamir also took the opportunity to explain why Indians are successful in freestyle wrestling but not in Greco-Roman wrestling, which focuses only on upper body techniques.