Riteish Deshmukh is mastering Capoeira

Riteish Deshmukh is training in Capoeira A Brazilian art form comprising of dance, martial arts and games. He has employed the services of a French trainer and apart from his fees Riteish is also paying for his accommodation and living expenses, for the time he lives in Mumbai.

Riteish says he heard about Capoeira when he was shooting for De Taali in Bangkok. "There was a French extra called Newik and his body movements were extremely flexible and agile. When I asked him how he had acquired such a lithe body he said he had trained in Parkour, Shaolin and Capoeira for years. I told him I was free for a month and asked if he would he come down to India at my expense and train me in Capoeira?" He agreed and worked with the actor for two months when the Aladdin shooting schedule got postponed.

Riteish is very passionate about Capoeira, "It's a new style of dancing and without workouts my body was getting stiffer." The actor used to practice for two-and-half hours a day. He adds, "Capoeira involves a variety of movements from stretching to dancing, jumps, kicks and handstands. Of course because of the lack of time it wasn't easy to learn the entire art form. Newik said he had learnt Shaolin for a year for 12 hours every day." But Capoeira has definitely made Riteish's body more flexible, dance and action-oriented, he admits.

Riteish's next release is Aladdin. He leaves for the Unforgettables tour in September. "We go to Canada, USA, Trinidad and London on the first leg and Singapore, South Africa and south-east Asian countries in the second."