From Hollywood to the IPL: Meet the Indian success coach who helped Jos Buttler become an 'Absolute Champion'

^{Anand Chulani with Jos Buttler}

Success stories from the world of sport have often gone on to become great movie scripts.

Biopics like Remember the Titans, Invincible, Miracle, and Ali among others, inspired by the real life stories from the field of sports, have carved out a special place in our hearts.

But how often have we heard about a man who gave up a blossoming Hollywood career and went on to make a direct influence on the lives and careers of athletes worldwide? 

Anand Chulani, once upon a time a writer, actor and comedian in Tinseltown, took that unusual path when he chose to be a success coach a decade ago.

Since then, he has mentored many sporting personalities, trying to bring about a change in their mindset and unlocking the absolute champions inside them.

Chulani is now an internationally acclaimed speaker, legacy advisor and peak performance and mental conditioning coach helping individuals, not only from the field of sports but also from business and entertainment, with the mental aspect of their work.

He has worked with Serena Williams, Ross Taylor, Marcus Stoinis and IPL franchises Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals over the years. Yet his story has remained untold.

Chulani with Marcus Stoinis

However, once England batsman Jos Buttler’s splendid form with the bat for Rajasthan translated into Test success for England, the world began to learn about the great work this man was doing backstage.

Following superb performances in the ODI series against Australia and then again in Tests against India, Buttler credited wo individuals for bringing about a change in his approach.

In an interview Stuart Broad in the Mail on Sunday, one of the names he identified was Shane Warne. The other? Chulani.

“He talked about things in an interesting way. For example, sportspeople talk about the zone ‘I was in the zone, so it was my day’. I think you can be in the zone more often than not if you want to," Buttler said.

"It (that peak) is more accessible than you think. Anand talked about how an actor can go from being themselves to being the character they need to be. You can be who you want to be sitting on the balcony, then when you get to the middle you make that space what you want it to be."

Chulani holds Buttler in high regards as well. His smartness, awareness, confidence and mental toughness are the qualities which impressed him the most during their stint with the Rajasthan Royals this year.

“He is a great guy. Talent was never the question with him but my challenge was to optimize what was already inside him," the coach tells The Cricketer in an exclusive interview.

"Being a champion is not necessarily the destination but it is the journey. All famous people who are successful and happy at the same time, with a proper balance of everything in their lives, have unconsciously followed this path"

"So, I worked on his mindset and helped him with the process. Some players think that today is my day, I am in the flow. But you have to learn to program your mind to be in that flow always. Our mind is like a computer and it will work exactly how we would program it to. He did exactly that, he attained mastery over his mind.

“He is happily doing and achieving what he wants to achieve. That's exactly what I have focused on doing with him and I am happy to see him executing that. The best thing about him is that you don't need to over teach or spoon-feed him. He is a very smart guy. All you need to do is to share the idea with him and he will figure out the rest."

Whenever a player goes through a bad run of form, pundits and fans will quickly look to see the technical tweaks which could help end the slump. Seldom do we try to find out about their state of mind. This is where Chulani’s work becomes very important.

He tries to get his athletes back into prime mental shape, and he does it with the help of his self-developed methodology - the ‘The Absolute Champions Model’.

“I found out that there are three types of successful people: one is self-doubters," Chulani explains. "They can always achieve success but they doubt themselves a lot. They can belong to any profession and this path is the most destructive as it leads to high anxiety, severe depression even though people can end up being successful.

“The second is the achievers. They are trained their whole life to achieve their goals, targets or destinations and then be happy. But I think none of these models work and have severe implications on health and social life. So, my question is why does everyone wait for achievement to be happy? Why can't you happily achieve?

“So, I coined a third method, another type of successful people or rather a path to success and called it the champions’ model. Being a champion is not necessarily the destination but it is the journey. All famous people who are successful and happy at the same time, with a proper balance of everything in their lives, have unconsciously followed this path. So, my goal is to infuse this kind of attitude in my entire country and those whom I work with.”

Chulani has firm faith in his methods but he also believes that they won’t be of any help if the athlete in question does not fully immerse him or herself in the process.

“The players have to be mentally strong. It's a part and parcel of the game," he says.

Chulani has also worked with Serena Williams

"To think that there won't be any criticism is like living in a Disneyland. The players need to see critics as a worthy opponent whose criticisms would remind them of the gifts they have been given and sometimes also helps them to have a clear understanding of their own problems. So, the whole thing will be different if we perceive it in this way.”

Chulani knows a great deal about what goes on inside players' minds and it is this unique ability that helps of his that helps him in bringing out the best from other individuals.    

Fourteen years ago his life was very different. He was making all the right kind of noises in Hollywood back until 2004 and looked set to become a prominent figure in the entertainment industry.

He worked on TV shows in Los Angeles and was involved in movies like The American Chai, Slaughter Studios and Spoof, alongside stars like George Clooney. He also toured with Russell Peters as one of the “gurus of comedy” and was the first Indian to write for American sitcoms.

So what influenced him to suddenly opt for a radically different career path?

“I think it was in 2004 and I was writing for a sitcom," he said. "The night before, I had done a comedy show and people had really laughed their hearts out. It was a great experience for me always to see people laugh. But when I walked outside after the show, I saw this husband and wife having an argument. Suddenly, that struck something in my mind and I couldn’t exactly figure out at that moment what it was.

“The next day, I went to the sitcom I was writing for. I drove over to the Paramount Studios. I sat down there to have a look at the numbers on the show and it had around 10million views. Those were incredible numbers and then something clicked in my brain and I asked myself 'what am I really doing?' I made that guy laugh for 20 minutes last night but he went out after that and had an argument with his wife straight away.

"If the Indian team ever wants me to work with them, I’ll be happy to do it. They are such a passionate bunch of people"

“The same way these 10 million people would have laughed for 20 or 30 minutes and then they were back again to their lives, their pain and their arguments. And then I wrote down this phrase, 'I spent my life entertaining people and distracting them from the truth. Now, I am going to help them find the truth.' I wanted to help people see the truth now."

A year later, he completed the show he was writing for and took time off. He didn't accept any more assignments and started figuring out what he wanted to do. A meeting with success coach Anthony Robbins - who has mentored heads of state like Bill Clinton - propelled him on a totally different trajectory

“I was a psychology major at college and was always fascinated by the subject. For the first time, I probably saw psychology being applied practically because he was literally changing people's lives there," he said of that first experience of Robbins' show.

"I couldn't meet him after the show but I wrote a letter to him with exactly the same phrase I wrote before and handed it to a random sales guy. Luckily the letter got to his creative team and I was called for an interview soon. I got a job. I worked in the content department for a couple of years and then I met him and even travelled with him.”

By 2008 he felt he was ready to go on his own, leaving the United States for Hong Kong and then India. He hasn't looked back since.

Along with top business houses, leaders, entrepreneurs and other sports personalities, Chulani works personally with five cricketers, the majority of whom have sought his help after meeting him in the IPL.  

“I am grateful to Kings as they gave me the opportunity to work in the IPL," he says. "If they wouldn't have given me the chance, I wouldn't have probably been a part of this great event. I am really grateful to the owners for having their faith in me. Sanjay Bangar got me the chance the work with them and I am really grateful to him. 

“There I met Virender Sehwag who has been kind of like a mentor to me. I learned a lot from him and he is a great coach. I had already worked with sportsmen and athletes before but IPL had kind of its own flow. So, Sehwag helped me a lot with that.”

It is a far cry from Chulani's former life in Hollywood

It was with Kings XI that Stoinis got to work with Chulani for the first time. He was so impressed with Chulani’s methodologies, his commitment to the work and process that he decided to sign him up as his personal mental conditioning coach.

“My time working with ... Anand Chulani ... has been a key moment in my career," the Australian said in 2017.

"We've continued to work since the IPL and that has helped me bring out my potential. I've always believed in myself but our work has helped me develop the mindset of a champion and a process to deliver my best."

“(Stoinis) is another guy like Jos who is very confident. He is very smart and growth driven as well," says Chulani. "He has all the potential in him to be Australia's next great allrounder.

"If he is given a consistent run in the team he will surely deliver. I see some of Shane Watson's traits in him. There are a lot of other talented Australian all rounders like Mitch Marsh but I rate Stoinis very highly.”

After working with the Kings XI Punjab for two seasons, Chulani was roped in by the Rajasthan for the 2018 IPL, where he mentored eight players.

“I have worked with many sports coaches but only a few have acted and worked together as a team. Here, at the Rajasthan Royals, they were like a team too," he says.

"Everyone helped each other with their inputs in order to improve a player. I hope I’ll get to do the same next year as well.”

The work doesn't stop there for Chulani, whose book Absolute Champions is due to be published next year. And he has a burning desire to work with the Indian national setup.

“If the Indian team ever wants me to work with them, I’ll be happy to do it. They are such a passionate bunch of people," he says.

"They have Virat Kohli who is very growth driven. He has the mentality of what I call an absolute champion. I know Ajinkya Rahane from Rajasthan Royals. I would be more than happy to help them in taking them to the next level.”