Kabir Khan’s next venture has a curious title: Chandu Champion. This, coming from a director who directed a film titled Tubelight, seems fairly in character.
All Kabir will tell me about is that it is based on true story and that it would have Kartik play a real-life hero.
But here is what I found out after doing some deep digging.
According to a source in the know, “Kartik is playing the paralympics champion Murlikant Petkar. It is the same role that Sushant Singh Rajput was to play seven years ago of the physically disabled army man turned sportsperson Murlikant Petkar who won a Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1970 and at the Paralympics in Germany in 1972.Chandu Champion will be quirky and authentic. It is not a glamorous film like Kartik Aaryan’s earlier films. He will play a character totally opposite to what he is in real life. The walk, the dialectic speech, the clothes would all be alien to Kartik’s personality.He will be doing full-on transformative drill before getting into the character.”
Speaking to me excitedly in an interview in 2016 Sushant had said, “The minute I heard his story I was on. I wanted to do it without a second thought. What an inspiring story! After playing Dhoni I’m looking forward to playing Petkar who never allowed his physical hurdles to stand in the way of his dreams. I like playing characters who dream big.”
Chandu Champion is expected to go on the floors by the end of the year. It is expected to release for Bakr Id 2024 along with Shahid Kapoor’s comedy directed by Anees Bazmee. However, Bazmee’s film is apparently yet to lock its script.
