When 17-year-old Delhi-based actor Vrishab Wig is not on stage, he is likely on a mat. He has been training in Pilates with celebrity instructor and wellness coach Kitty Kalra, a Delhi-based trainer certified under the STOTT method, an internationally recognised programme widely regarded as the gold standard in Pilates instruction.
Pilates is a discipline focused on controlled movement, core strength, posture and body alignment, and it is steadily finding serious followers in India’s performing arts community. Kitty’s clientele has included names like Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi and cricketer Harbhajan Singh, and she is a recipient of the Bharat Nirman Award for her contribution to fitness in India.
For Kitty, working with a performing artist requires a particular kind of attention. “For a young performer like Vrishab, it’s important to build not just strength but have awareness of the body,” she explains. “Pilates helps him develop control, alignment and endurance, which are essential for sustaining performance and preventing injuries over time,” adds Kitty.
It is a philosophy that clearly resonates with Vrishab. “Pilates has taught me that performance starts before you walk on stage,” he says. “When your body is aligned and your core is engaged, you are not thinking about your posture or your breath. You are free to just act.”
That freedom on stage is something he has been steadily working towards across multiple disciplines. He holds advanced LAMDA qualifications and has been mentored in acting by writer-director Shashwat Srivastava, under whom he performed in ‘Live! From The Warehouse’, a production that toured Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and the United Kingdom and returns to London this July. He is also set to appear in a production of ‘Julius Caesar’ in London this June.
For a 17-year-old still in school, it is a quietly serious body of work. And if the stage demands that you show up fully, in body and in mind, Vrishab appears to have already decided he is not leaving that to chance.