Celebrity trainer turned actor Mustafa Ahmed received a lot of love for his role in ‘Dhurandhar 2’. He played Rizwan, Hamza’s trusted assistant in the film. But his path to the spotlight has not been easy. Years ago, he earned just Rs 10,000 a month as a gym trainer in Janakpuri, Delhi. Almost 15 years later, he would go on to train none other than Hrithik Roshan.Mustafa’s path was far from conventional. He wasn’t someone people expected to “succeed.” Like the protagonist of Taare Zameen Par, he struggled with dyslexia and eventually abandoned formal education.Mustafa Ahmed recalled on the Jag Of All Trades podcast: “I wasn’t a bright kid. I was dyslexic and come from Afghan origin. But I was always physical: I was good at sports and learned to dance naturally. Anything that involved using my body, I was good at it.”At just 21, he was already earning Rs 1 lakh a month as the youngest team leader in a call center in 2001, a dream job for many. But one seemingly small moment ended up changing his life completely. While working out at a gym in Janakpuri, he noticed a trainer ignoring a woman in her 40s. He stepped in to help her, not realizing how crucial that moment would be.On the Alpha Coach podcast, he shared, “A couple of months later, she handed me an envelope and asked me to read it at home. It scared me. But in that letter, she wrote that working out had brought the spark back into her marriage. She told me that was my life’s calling, and not following it would be a crime.”That message stayed with him. Shortly after, Mustafa made the bold decision to leave his high-paying job. “My manager called me crazy,” he said. His mother also stopped talking to him after he left a stable career, especially since he had already moved away from academia.Starting from scratch, he got a job at a gym in west Delhi for Rs 10,000 a month, waking up at 4 a.m. every day to open the shutters. Around the same time, a visit to Fitness First in Connaught Place became another turning point. Despite lacking formal qualifications, his honesty and passion earned him a job.“They offered me Rs 18,000 plus Rs 600 per session, of which they kept Rs 300 and gave me the other Rs 300. I couldn’t believe people would pay me that for an hour. That’s when I felt: the sky is the limit,” he said.What followed was pure determination and consistency. Within three months, Mustafa became the number one Fitness First trainer in Asia. He conducted up to 14 sessions a day, six days a week, putting in nearly 400 hours a month and earning over Rs 1.4 lakh. In 2009 it had already been firmly established.As his career progressed, so did his vision. Seeing international trainers dominating the Indian fitness space, Mustafa wondered why Indian trainers were not getting the same recognition. “I thought I was on par with them. So why not me?” said.Before Dhurandhar’s release, Mustafa had written an emotional note to Aditya Dhar in 2025: “‘Main hoon na. Tu kar.’ He said this every time I doubted myself. ‘Tu theek hai na’ when he was not well. ‘Tu khush hai na’ when I got emotional.” Reflecting on his acting debut, he added, “Aditya Dhar, you took me on a journey I never imagined. You saw in me what I didn’t know existed. But most importantly, you gave me your friendship and love, and for that, you have my loyalty for life.”
