Do you really need whey protein to build muscle? Experts weigh in Abbas Ali, a fitness trainer who has trained Shilpa Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha, and Shahid Kapoor in the past, remembers the whey supplements of the early 2000s. “Strawberry was the tastiest flavour; chocolate was the worst, but on the whole, they all tasted bad,” he says, of the days when a box of 42 sachets would cost ₹7,000 to ₹12,000. “If you were having two or three a day, you were really wealthy.” Those were the nascent days of gym training, when fitness instructors, most often high school graduates, advised their clients on supplements. Their inspiration: beefed up Bollywood men.