‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’

The story of celebrity yogi Bikram Choudhury gets decidedly Harvey Weinstein in Netflix’s ‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’ (2019).

A deep dive into the humble beginnings of the man who built his hot yoga empire on a series of 26 postures practised with the thermostat set to broil, the documentary chronicles the rise and sexual misconduct ridden fall of ‘the bad boy of yoga’.

Serving up a slick and increasingly disturbing tale of imagined yoga championships, stolen techniques and gross abuse of power, ‘Bikram’ zooms in on the evolution of the yogi’s classes in Beverly Hills.

Sitting high on a ratty throne, fan blowing as he overlooks the genuflecting hordes who’ve come to sweat, practise and just about pass out in his sought after sessions, Bikram, wearing nothing but his signature black Speedo, cuts a bizarre cult figure.

“He would sing and your whole body would tingle,” says former Bikram student and studio owner Val Sklar Robinson who credits the guru with curing her limp as she recalls his classes with unbridled awe. “You just died in that room… you just pushed everything out of every pore”.

One of a handful of women who swear by the power and genius of the shamed yogi, in this Eva Orner documentary, devoted former students are a counterpoint to women such as Larissa Anderson and Sarah Baughn who have accused Bikram of rape and sexual harassment respectively.

In the post-MeToo era, the women’s reasons for prolonged silence are easily gauged.

With Bikram Yoga fast gaining in popularity and the man himself the only person from which to earn accreditation to teach his yoga and open a studio in his name, Bikram was a veritable god in the yoga community, with the power to make or break an aspiring yogi’s career.

Described as ‘a force’ with a ‘powerful teaching voice’ as well as the inventor of a life changing series who effortlessly inspired a level of worship and reverence, Bikram seems almost archetypal in his embodiment of a captain of industry using his considerable influence and power to prey on those who, not only need both to progress in their careers, but also seem to have initially admired him.

Additionally accused of racial discrimination by a woman named Pandhora Williams who was kicked out of his teacher training with the words “Get that black bitch out of here. She’s a cancer,”, Bikram is clearly no Zen, even-tempered yogi.

It seems neither is he the wellness genius his devotees think he is. In fact, Bikram describes Bishnu Charan Ghosh, the man he credits as his teacher as “the greatest health culturist of the 20th century” which may be why many of his famed yoga poses were lifted straight from his teacher’s handbook.

Bikram, for his part, denies all accusations of wrongdoing and fled America after being ordered to pay punitive damages to Minakshi Jafa-Bodden who refused to cover up an investigation into rape allegations and was summarily sacked.

If you’re wondering how far accountability goes, not as far as Mexico, Spain or India where Bikram will hold Bikram’s India Legacy Tour this year.

Though it’s a far cry from his positively packed nine-week yoga training sessions going for U$10 000 a pop, it’s clear that even as some American yoga studios scrape the word ‘Bikram’ off their signs and replace it with the words ‘hot yoga’, life for the guru – much like many powerful men accused of sexual misconduct – is pretty much shady business as usual.

‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’ (2019) is now streaming on Netflix.

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