THE STORY OF A MARTIAL ARTS PRACTITIONER, WHO TURNED INTO AN ACTOR IN THE FINAL QUARTER OF HIS LIFE…
KravMaga SreeRam is a name well known among police and corporates in Tamil Nadu. From being an artist to a karate black belt, from being an ad films maker working behind the scenes to KravMaga practitioner and trainer, he has seen it all in the first three quarters of his life, and now in the final quarter, he has got his big break as an actor in a movie based on different perspectives of romance.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PAINTING, WRITING AND MARTIAL-ARTS PURSUITS.
I come from a family of writers and painters, my dad was into both. So, I was naturally inclined to creative pursuits. No one was into sports though, but as a teen, I was dabbling with weights, boxing, rowing till I realized I was a natural in martial arts. So, at 16 I started practicing Karate and by 20 I had got my black belt.
WHEN DID YOU START KRAV MAGA TRAINING?
Krav Maga is a fighting system developed for the Israeli defense and security forces. It uses hybrid techniques from Boxing, Aikido, Jujitsu, Muay Thai and Judo. I started practicing it in 2006 to regain my flagging fitness at the age of 46. By 2009, I started teaching it on a small scale. In 2012 I was invited by the then Commissioner of Police, Chennai J.K.Tripathi IPS to train the city police personnel.
In 2013 August, in front of 7000 people at the police medal parade, I had an opportunity to demonstrate Krav Maga to the then CM, Jayalalithaa Amma. About 150 constables, of whom 80 were women, performed. Amma loved the performance so much that she asked me to institutionalize Krav Maga. Since then we have been training TN Police Commandos and the prison wardens for crisis management.
HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO USE KRAVMAGA IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE?
This story is from the March 2019 edition of RITZ.
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This story is from the March 2019 edition of RITZ.
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