MuscleBlaze flexes its storytelling muscle with ‘India’s strongest unknowns’

MUMBAI: Some stories don’t break the internet, they break you a little, then build you right back up. MuscleBlaze’s new content series, India’s strongest unknowns, does exactly that, throwing a spotlight on the grit that rarely makes it into glossy sports ads.

India’s leading sports nutrition brand has taken a sharp creative turn with its new flagship series, created by Tonic Worldwide, choosing long-form, cinematic storytelling over sprint-length reels. Instead of protein tubs and pumped-up montages, the brand dives into the messy, emotional, often invisible labour that turns talented athletes into national outliers.

The inaugural film, India’s Fastest Hurdler Ever | Tejas Shirse’s 13.41s National Record, sets the tone and the bar for the series. Over ten intense minutes, the film tracks Shirse’s turbulent path through the 110-metre hurdles: the financial squeezes, the mental strain on his family, the heartbreak of missing qualification by split seconds, and the psychological toll of coming up short again and again. Through candid interviews with Tejas, his coach and his family, the film makes one thing brutally clear, speed may win medals, but resilience wins careers.

“In an era dominated by micro-dramas and one-second reels, we made a conscious choice to slow down,” said Tonic Worldwide co-founder and chief creative officer Sudish Balan. “Effort, discipline, accountability these aren’t concepts that fit into fleeting clips. For India’s strongest unknowns, we committed to cinematic integrity. We wanted audiences not just to watch, but to feel an athlete’s journey. We’re not chasing views, we’re building trust.”

By presenting athletes like Shirse through documentary-style narratives, MuscleBlaze positions itself less as a brand and more as a chronicler of India’s athletic backbone, the overlooked, the underfunded and the relentlessly driven.

The series will continue to drop new episodes over the coming months, each spotlighting a different athlete or fitness icon and slowly building a library of long-form stories that don’t just motivate the MuscleBlaze community, they validate it.

If protein builds the body, these films build the conviction to keep going.