DFITZY: An interactive fitness platform offering various fitness routines like yoga, pilates, zumba

After attaining a certain sense of maturity and self-awareness, a majority of the world’s people realize the importance of physical activity and a nutritious diet. While it is very difficult to define who is fit, who is slightly fit and who is not, the choice ultimately boils down to an individual’s mind-set. Will such an individual follow a physical activity plan in order to look better and gain social capital? Will this individual follow a meticulous diet plan in order to complement his work life? In short, it does not matter why an individual starts making plans to adopt a fitness regime. What matters is whether they will continue.

Health and Wellness is a lifelong pursuit. You can literally eliminate all your gains from working out in a matter of a few days of binge-eating and binge-drinking. Add binge-watching into this equation and it is prudent to reason that one can spend all day long thinking about the perfect body, but if those thoughts do not translate into consistent action, then all the best. 

The world wasn’t a very healthy place to begin with and it seems as if the current pandemic has served to expose the faults in all our systems and processes that were meant to hold us steady during a rough ride. Take preventive healthcare, for example. A lack of movement has served to give the word ‘sedentary lifestyle’ a whole new literal meaning. Forced to stay indoors, an entire gamut of new players have entered the modern healthcare market to attract new users to adopt their favourite fitness regimes, indoors. 

Today, at Bangalore Insider we spoke to Mazhar Nadiadwala, the managing director of Dome Entertainment, the company that has developed the DFITZY brand, an android-ios app that serves to help users live a healthy lifestyle. Below are the excerpts from our interaction.    

Give a brief info about DFITZY?

DFITZY is a new business venture by Dome Entertainment. Considering the recent outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, we as a brand wanted to contribute towards society and what better way than to keep people fit! Thus, DFITZY was born!

It is an interactive fitness platform offering various fitness routines like yoga, pilates, zumba and cross functional training among other options. Monitored by the best celebrity trainers in the business, DFITZY gives its members a chance to have a real time one-on-one conversation with trainers during their practice sessions. It also comes with a customized diet plan for every individual.

DFITZY will be led by the very promising Azhar Morani under my guidance and he has already started putting in his heart into this project.

What made you start this brand and what problem does it solve?

We witnessed how the pandemic has brought the country to a standstill with people missing their regular routine of going out, travelling and workouts. Most people are working from home, thus becoming quite inactive physically. Also, working from home can be stressful for people with kids as they have to constantly juggle between work and householdchores. All of this can disrupt food habits and sleep cycles, and lead to unhealthy eating habits and weight gain. Hence, we came up with DFITZY to ensure people stay fit and build their immunity system through increasing physical activities as it is of prime importance in this fight against the contagion.

DFITZY’s array of fitness regimes, monitored real time by the best trainers, ensure that everyone leads a healthy lifestyle and enables them tode- stress by working out at a time convenient to them and from the comfort of their homes. We all know that a good workout session helps in regularizing our sleep cycle and helps us build a good appetite. And because diet and exercise go hand in hand, the app provides a customized diet plan filled with nutritious options to boost our body’s immunity. 

It can be said that DFITZY brings anactual gym experience to your home and the app provides fitness solutions for members in the age group across 15 – 55 years.

Tell us about yourself and any other ventures if you are associated with?

My connection with the entertainment industry dates back to over two decades. After producing quite a number of films, I associated with Cineyug wherein I ventured into television production, sporting events, reality shows to name a few. My stint with Cineyug gave me the motivation to explore the business of premium venues and thus came Dome, NSCI into the picture. Dome Entertainment, the parent company of this iconic venue has always been extremely close to my heart as it made me realise the potential I have to host larger than life events. With Dome, I have had the honour of hosting some of the grandest and world class events the country has ever seen across sectors – be it IIFA to Pro Kabaddi League to Red Bull BC One World Championship or BMW Launch to name a few. Also, as a country we love our festival, hence we have the grandest dandiya nights and Christmas celebrations, which are our own independent properties.

I have also been spearheading Dome Entertainment since the inception of the brand. It gives me immense joy to bring a world class event experience to India and give our audiences some memorable events to cherish.

Where is your brand based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

While our office is based out of Mumbai, DFITZY is an online application which is accessible from any corner of the world.

As a startup/ new brand founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

I believe that starting a new brand is no easy task, especially with so many promising competitors in the market coming up with offerings like never before. 

I am usually not someone who would lose his sleep over anything, but there are certain things that worry me. For example, I am constantly worried about living up to customer expectations and providing optimum customer satisfaction.  

Who are your competitors and how are you better than them?

Competition will always be there and I think it is quite healthy for any brand, however it always depends onhow we help and bring valueto the consumers and the offerings we introduce to stay aheadof the curve. 

Our unique offering is that we provide real time virtual conversations between trainers and members during workout sessions; this gives our customers a very enriching experience of actually attending sessions. It also creates the opportunity to build their para- immunity through physical activities.

How hard is it to have a work-life balance when you have a new brand on your sleeve and how do you manage it?

I have been in the event industry from the start and the journey has not been an easy one. It did require a lot of efforts and looking back, I can say that we have come a long way in the evolution of the events sector in India. A sector which wasn’t initially identified, has now successfully established itself with even the Government recognizing the potential of the industry in the country.

Having said that, I think work-life balance is extremely important for every working professional. While some successfully manage it, some cannot. However, for me, I do have a very busy schedule throughout the day but I make sure to spend quality time with my family after work hours and catch up with friends over the weekend. 

Also, I love cycling!! It has been my childhood love and is my stress buster after a hectic day. I have hit the road and covered as much as 100 km at a time; it helps me to temporarily everything else in life. While I have never been a part of any group, I have teamed up with many for cycling trips.

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If not then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

DFITZY is yet too nascent for us to talk numbers. A few months down the line, if we plan on raising investments or if there is any other financial announcement, we will surely let everyone know.

What are the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

Most people consider me an ardent workaholic who doesn’t look at anything beyond work but I strongly endorse a work life balance. I believe that one cannot grow until one invests in oneself.  It is extremely important to nurture yourself each day, everyday, and thus I prefer starting my day with something I love- either books or a fitness regime. 

Post that, spending some quality time with my family and children over the breakfast table is a non-negotiable.  

Social relationships also play an integral part in my life and hence I don’t lose out on a single opportunity to connect and engage with them. Post- work is for friends…to bond, to laugh, to grow!! Also sometimes I go for cycling which is my childhood love and my most ideal go-to option to unwind.

I also like to serve the city and its people by bringing to them the best possible experience and work towards evolving as we go down the road, especially by coming up with new ideas.

What gets you excited about this company?

I have spent all my life in the entertainment industry. From the silver screen to TV to hosting some of the biggest events in the country, I have seen it all. The fact that this is my first venture into the world of fitness is what excites me. In addition to that, it gives me immense joy to help people stay healthy and fit during this pandemic by bringing their gym experiences within the four walls of their homes and giving them a healthy nutritious diet plan. Over and above that, we have been witnessing people’s mental health taking a toll due to lack of physical inactivity. Our aim is help everyone remain active through exercises in order to be positive during this time. We if are successful in doing so, I feel it will be more than what we would have liked to achieve. Basically this is our contribution towards the people and we are also taking the charitable route through this initiative wherein a certain amount of proceed will be donated to an NGO for the welfare of the community. 

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

My day starts with gratitude – to the universe, to the divine power, to life for yet another beautiful day! 

My mantra in life is to stay healthy and mentally calm to achieve greater heights hence I usually opt for some morning exercise followed by a hearty breakfast with family. 

Day planning is of supreme importance to me so the first thing at work for me is to pen down my tasks for the day. This helps me manage my day better. Once my morning meetings are done, I prefer to sit down with the young talent in my company to nurture them, brainstorm with them, ideate with them and innovate. And then you’d see me around jiggle between multiple phone calls and in-person meetings all through the day. Post-work, I prefer catching up with friends…engage, laugh and rejuvenate. Dinner is also meant to be with family…chatting, discussing, playing games before calling it a day!

I also love to read and so before hitting the bed, I make sure to read at least a few pages from one of my favourite books. I also take a walk sometimes to keep a balanced frame of mind.

A well-balanced lifestyle is the key to success as it gives people the space of mind they require to introspect and excel in places where they sometimes think they cannot even venture.

Tell us more about the minds that are behind DFITZY (your team)?

DFITZY is primarily led by Azhar Morani who is already putting in his heart and soul into this venture. Also, we are grateful to have some of the best trainers on board like Vinay Bhambwani, Daniella Gomes, Simonne Mascarenhas who are determined to put in their optimum efforts to aid us in serving to our consumers.

I am also blessed to have some of the best minds working for Dome Entertainment and that is the team which has been the biggest support system for DFITZY as well. Given the caliber and potential that they have showcased over the years in hosting larger than life events, I was absolutely confident that they would be able to pull off DFITZY as well with great ease.