Fitness venture: A new fad among Bollywood and cricket stars

Wellness industry in the country has been witnessing the growing interest with heavy investments pouring in through celebrities.

Madhuri Dixit’s recent launch of online dance academy ‘Dance with Madhuri’ is another example of popular celebrities actively venturing into wellness sector by launching their own fitness institutes or academies.

“I want to teach and show people the passion and the happiness I get through dance. This inspired me to reach out to masses and Dr Shriram Nene helped me turn my dream into reality. We planned of launching the online version because of its potential to reach to unlimited audience. In class you can teach only 30 people, but when you go online, you reach out to 300 million people,” says Madhuri Dixit Nene, Bollywood Actress.

Just before Madhuri, Gul Panag launched the fiteness app called MobieFit in partnership with start-up incubator Prototyze. The app focuses on mobile fitness, powered by celebrity trainers. “We have currently developed two engines - a motion-based engine that uses mobile sensors to measure exercises and a distance engine that uses GPS coordinates to track and log distance,” according to the listing on Angel.co.

In the March 2014, Sushmita Sen had launched a new fitness concept called Aerial Silk, which was about to train one’s mind and the body will follow. In the end of the same year,Shilpa Shetty Kundra formed a joint venture to introduce the fitness service called YaPTM, which is combination of Yoga and Physiotherapy.

Following the lines, sizzling yet most fit actress Bipasha Basu has been known for launching her fitness DVDs titled Unleash and Love Yourself.

Even the cricketers are not far behind in the race with their Bollywood peers. The most talked about cricketer Virat Kohli has recently launched his own chain of gyms and fitness centres across the country under the brand name CHISEL, with an investment of Rs 90 crores.

"We will launch gyms of various sizes and with different facilities according to their locations. We are also in talks with international sports-based fitness experts to bring in their expertise," said Satya Sinha, Director, Chisel Fitness.

Much before Virat, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of Indian cricket team has launched a chain of gyms under the name SportsFIT in 2012. Dhoni invested around Rs 2000 cr for the chain.

Indian wellness industry has been witnessing growing movement among celebrities for coming up with their own fitness academies amid peaking health consciousness among people. Wellness is the fastest-growing sector in the overall wellness market comprising gyms, spas and fitness equipment used at homes and slimming centres.

According to the study of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published in August 2013, the whole wellness industry- comprised of beauty care, therapy, health and wellness and food and beverages is poised to touch Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) by 2015, with a compounded annual growth rate of 15-17 per cent, from about Rs 70,000 crore in 2012.

Of the entire wellness industry, beauty care would continue to dominate with almost 50 per cent (about Rs 49,000 crore), followed by alternate therapy (about Rs 21,000 crore) and health and wellness food and beverages at about Rs 27,000 crore.

The size of the beauty care industry is estimated at Rs 29,000 crore in 2012 estimate, while fitness and slimming market was estimated at Rs 60,000 crore in 2012. About 60 per cent of the market is dominated by products.

Apart from this, the industry is facing issues in getting standard skilled manpower, and no standard is followed across the industry.