He might be an international celebrity now, but one person who is credited with the making of the Great Khali is former Punjab DGP MS Bhullar.
Bhullar, who always had a penchant for spotting outstanding sportspersons for the police, is amused to see a stone-crushing boy from Himachal Pradesh scale such dizzying heights under his guidance. Though retired in 2003, Bhullar still remains a ‘guru’ to Khali in many ways. Ajay Bharadwaj caught up with him:
How do you look at Khali after his return as a WWE champion of sorts?It is just like rearing a child and watching him grow bigger than you. It is indeed a proud moment not only for me but for the Punjab police as well, of which he is a devoted soldier.
How did you spot Khali?
It was in 1993 when I came to know there was a boy in Sirmour district who was supposedly eight feet tall. I sent my officers to look for him, but we achieved little success until a media report about him appeared. He was engaged as help by an ageing couple in Shimla.
My officers spotted him there and persuaded him to join the Punjab police. The moment I saw him for the first time in my office, I found him quite promising and we took no time in inducting him in Punjab Armed Police as a constable in the sports quota. He was just 22 then.
How did you groom him thereafter?A complete illiterate that he was, it was quite an ordeal since he was too tall to be ignored in the lot. His body was very stiff. Initially, we tried to shape him as a basketball player because of his height, but he failed to deliver.
Then we trained him in short-put throw. He did acquire some acumen and touched the 25 meters target as well. But soon he developed back pain following which he was made to quit that too. Then we decided to train him in bodybuilding. His muscles did shape up well, but his thigh and calf muscles did not build much due to his Himachal background, so he sort of stopped growing in body building too.
How did the idea of training him in WWF cross your mind?After he failed to deliver in all the sports we tried him in, a friend of mine, who runs a bodybuilding gym in Jalandhar suggested that I send him abroad for WWF training. I liked up the idea and asked him to go to the US in 1996 where he was trained along with other WWF wrestlers.
After that he never looked back. As he was a stone crusher in his teenage days, his hands had a very strong grip. That proved to be an added asset.
How did you reward him for his success in WWF?I gave him two promotions and elevated him to the rank of an assistant sub-inspector.
How did he acquire the title of ‘Khali’?During his trips abroad he was hooted by foreigners at many places. He shared this painful experience with his spiritual guru, Ashutosh Maharaj, who suggested that he say “Kaali mata ki jai”, whenever anyone booed him or shouted at him. Soon, he acquired the moniker ‘Khali’ which is only a distortion of Kaali. In fact, it is the foreigners who gave him this name.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net
