Truly a man of action, Shifu KANISHKA SHARMA tells PRAKRITI ROY his amazing story of success
He choreographs action sequences for films, trains various military and paramilitary forces (including Indian Army, Indian Air Force Special Forces, Delhi Police, CISF to name a few) and conducts corporate programmes for women to teach them self-defence. But that isn’t exactly what Kanishka Sharma had planned to do all his life.
He went to school at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi, and did B Com Honours from Delhi University. After this he went on to pursue his MBA (where he was a gold medallist) from a university in Holland. After that, he worked for only about a year when he realised that his true calling lay in martial arts, something he had been learning since the age of six-and-a-half, and not in a corporate job.
I always loved martial arts and after working in the corporate sector for a year, I decided to start a new career from scratch in something I love doing. I travelled to China, Phillipines, Taiwan and many places to learn as much as I could. When I returned, I got some great opportunities to work with National Geographic, Akshay Kumar and, finally, the film Don happened where I did the action sequences.
There are a number of martial arts that he trained in Karate, Kung Fu To’a, Kalaripayattu (Indian martial arts), Shaolin Kung Fu, Jeet Kune Do (inspired by Bruce Lee’s martial art philosophy), Muay Thai, Kali (military training that teaches the art of killing in three seconds) and Tai Chi.
Of course, none of this came easily to him. Family and relatives were against him giving up a prosperous career. It was only later that he realised that his MBA skills are useful even now. “Education always helps. The soft skills I developed during MBA help me a lot. When I train corporates, I know what language to use,” he tells you.
Kanishka has never believed in teaching in parks or sports karate. He is clear that he wants to share his skills only with those who actually need them like women, military personnel and movies. He says that while working with armed forces is something very real, actually involving blood and sweat, working on a movie lets him unleash his creativity. This year, he is working on two movies.
As a tribute to where he gained most of his martial arts knowledge from, Kanishka is starting a Shaolin Gurukul in Pangot (near Nainital) on April 1 where he will teach mountain martial arts to whoever wants to learn.
The article also got published in The Pioneer Newspaper – http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/sunday-pioneer/backpack/packs-a-punch.html
