'Lived in 10X12 room, slept on top of each other': Ravi Kishen recalls living in 'disgusting' poverty as a child

While today, he’s the number one star in the Bhojpuri movie industry as well as a known face to Bollywood fans, life was not always a bed of roses for ‘Laapata Ladies’ star Ravi Kishen. In a podcast with Raj Shamani, the actor reminisced about coming from extreme poverty. He admitted that he had experienced the depravity of being penniless and was “disgusted” by it.

Recalling his childhood, the ‘Luck’ actor shared that he and his family lived in a room so tiny that they had to sleep on top of each other. He also revealed that they had to face humiliation for their poverty, and he was gradually fed up with their daily ordeal.

“I have seen a lot of poverty. I saw so much poverty that I was disgusted by it. I grew up seeing as many as 12 people (his family) eating the same khichdi that contained only a little bit of rice and so much water. We all slept in a 10×12 room, sometimes even on top of each other. Even the toilet was situated outside the house. I was extremely poor and was fed up with poverty as well as the taunts. I did not want to hear my father being ridiculed anymore,” he told Shamani.

The actor also shared fitness tips for those who find the gym too expensive.

Kishen’s Fitness Tips If You Can’t Afford Gym

Not all fitness enthusiasts can afford a gym. The actor maintained you don’t need a ton of money to lose weight and look your best. He advised fans to

• Run every day.
• Run at least 3-5 kilometre.
• Do 200 pushups daily.
• Soak chana or cottage cheese in water overnight and drink the water, and eat the chana the next morning.
• Wake up before sunrise and savour the beauty of the ascending sun.

Kishan is set to appear next in director Vijay Kumar Arora’s Son of Sardaar 2, where he takes on a prominent role alongside Ajay Devgn and Mrunal Thakur. The film, a spiritual successor to the 2012 action-comedy directed by Ashwni Dhir, features Kishan in a part that was initially intended for Sanjay Dutt.