Hrithik Roshan fit again for "Krrish" sequel

MUMBAI (Reuters) - His chiselled face and wide smile don't give anything away but just a few months ago, a recurring back problem and fitness issues were plaguing Hrithik Roshan.

The actor, who turned 38 on Tuesday, says realisation dawned when he tried on his super-hero suit from "Krrish" before shooting for the sequel, and found he couldn't fit into it.

"At that point, I thought finished, game over. I can't do 'Krrish' (the sequel) and my back is bad, so I won't be able to do action," Roshan told reporters at his residence on Thursday.

"Depression … I was smoking three packets (of cigarettes) a day. But all that is out of my life now," he said.

The actor said he started a ten-week transformation program, which helped him regain his fitness and lose ten kilos.

"I did it for me, for my life, for health. I feel new," he said.

Roshan said his father had offered to postpone the film by a year till he got his fitness back, but he refused.

"The effort is to achieve a pain-free body. I am damaged goods. Knees are gone, back is gone, shoulders gone, elbows are hurting. But life is all about pain. I'll manage," he said.

Roshan will start shooting for the new film, the third in the super-hero "Krrish" series after he finishes promoting his next release, Karan Malhotra's "Agneepath".

The film, a remake of the 1990 Mukul Anand film of the same name, will open in cinemas on January 26, and sees Roshan revamping Amitabh Bachchan's role in the original.

Roshan said his first instinct was to say no to "Agneepath" because he is against the idea of remakes, but then he changed his mind on hearing Malhotra's script.

"His script managed to go through the layers and touch an actor with pre-conceived notions. As an audience, it touched me. I had to do it," he said.

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar)