He’s taught the Kolkata Knight Riders, he’s taught Real Madrid players, he’s taught the coaches who came to town for the FIFA under-17 World Cup. But the student yoga instructor Rajyam Gupta cannot stop raving about is the Bhai of Bollywood, Salman Khan.

“I asked him what I should call him — Salman sir or Bhai and he promptly said Bhai,” smiles the GC Block resident who runs Yogaplus near the BF Block swimming pool.

Rajyam started his yoga studio in 2009 and has taught in over 40 countries but when he got the call from Salman Khan’s team last August, he was left pinching himself. “I was to go to his farmhouse Arpita Farms for 15 days and teach him yoga. And I was to leave Calcutta in two days flat,” says the ardent fan of Salman-starrers like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Andaz Apna Apna.

Once at Aprita Farms, Rajyam realised that all that brawn on the Khan is as real as it gets. “Bhai swims and hits the gym religiously and is so fit that actually, he didn’t even need the additional yoga sessions. Still, he was extremely humble and was a model student. He was ever-willing to learn,” Rajyam recalls. “I would guide him through basic poses like Pawan Muktasana and stretches.”

Rajyam says he went there to teach but came back having learnt from the Khans lessons in humility. He got to interact with other members of the star-studded family but is unable to share his experience to protect their privacy. “I wasn’t allowed to use my phone in the house but clicked one picture with Bhai. I myself am so nervous about not infringing on the family’s space that I haven’t shared the picture on social media to date. It’s almost been a year now,” Rajyam says.

The Khans are extremely hospitable, he says. “If Bhai met me five times a day he would enquire every time if I had eaten. He cares immensely for his staff and I’m sure even if a postman comes at lunchtime he will not be allowed to leave without eating,” Rajyam smiles.

He says that given how popular filmstars are, their leading a healthy lifestyle influences a whole generation. “Bhai himself brought a six-pack muscle man image to Bollywood and others like Kareena Kapoor and Shilpa Shetty famously practise yoga. In Hollywood, stars like Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr., who plays Iron Man, advocate yoga too,” says Rajyam, for whom the discipline turned around his life.

“In my teenage years, I was on the wrong path and led a reckless life. I’d come home after partying when my grandma would wake up to perform morning puja. But I was advised by a neighbour, who was a yoga instructor, to visit Bihar School of Yoga in Munger. That institute was the turning point in my life. After that, the boy who would return home at 5am started waking up at 4am.”

Rajyam also runs a construction company but teaches yoga in the morning and evening, besides tending to celebrity clients and sessions in different countries. “I’m not a sports fan at all so I may have taught football or cricket legends but I neither remember who they were nor am I always at liberty to share,” he says. “I just try to help all my students.”