An Indian soldier, who took nine bullets in the 1965 war and lost both his legs, went on to win his country its first ever medal at the Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1972.
Murlikant Petkar was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018, but not many people outside the Indian Army knew of him. Chandu Champion, starring Kartik Aaryan, tells his story buried in the dusty pages of history. Its director, Kabir Khan, could hardly believe a man of this grit and calibre could even exist. “It was shameful that we as a nation did not know of this man who had done us so proud early on after independence,” said Khan. “I drove to his residence in Pune to see him in flesh and blood. I was convinced that his story had to be told.”
Khan had directed 83, the story of Kapil Dev’s cricketing glory, but the soldier story posed a different challenge. Unlike with the Indian captain, there was no real video record of Petkar’s past. Khan gave Aaryan notes of his meeting with Petkar, and the actor transformed himself. So poignant is Aaryan’s depiction that our lasting memory of the unsung Petkar is the actor himself. He, in fact, met Petkar only after the shoot was done.
Aaryan dives into the role literally―swimming in cold, deep waters―and figuratively, and breaks free from his own image as a romantic, comical, lovelorn guy. In Chandu Champion, there is no trace of the funnily chaotic Rooh Baba (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2), the aimless lover boy Sattu (Satyaprem Ki Katha) or the goofy and childish Bantu Nanda (Shehzada).
Chandu Champion ushers in a mature Aaryan, one who is no longer reliant on monologues or his toothy grin, but is ready to shoulder the weight of an emotional, meaty narrative. It is his first biopic.
The film has reportedly had a slow start, and a reason for that, Khan said in an interview, was that fans are still coming around to this new Aaryan. The actor agreed. “This film is a sort of shifting of gears for me,” he said. “The most difficult aspect in the making of this film was to deconstruct ‘Kartik’ because people have a certain reference point of me, and I did not want them to see me in the film. I think the breakaway from my chocolate boy image is happening on its own. I think my audience is excited with this newness in me.”
I met Aaryan at producer Sajid Nadiadwala’s office in Mumbai. He was dressed formally, with a sand-brown suede jacket over a lemon-yellow T-shirt and blue trousers. His sharp jawline and gelled hair were complemented by his perky energy. “It (the film) has taken a lot from me both mentally and physically,” he said. “I really do hope people embrace it with love.”
Despite the flops over the years, Aaryan has now reached a point where he is the ‘Rs50 crore per film’ star. He laughed this off―he uses humour as an armour against tougher questions―and cheekily added, “But my expenses, too, have risen.”
“I think I have come to a point in my journey where I just want to enjoy and work with people I enjoy working with,” he said. “Thankfully, I am now at a point where I can make a choice. A couple of years back, I did not even have the liberty to choose the work I wanted. With all the failures and controversies I have been through so far, I hope I have seen the worst. But I am really proud of the fact that I could reach where I am today, with no help at all.”
There is something delightfully no-nonsense about him. In the past 13 years, he has been in 17 films, some of them creating ripples in the mainstream. It is tempting to compare Aaryan’s journey as an outsider from Gwalior to Shah Rukh Khan’s journey from Delhi. “Yes, I feel my journey comes quite close to his but, then again, my path is my own. Whenever you think you have arrived, your departure flight is just about to take off,” said the 33-year-old son of a doctor couple, who live with him in Mumbai.
Scalded by several “controversies” early on, Aaryan is now afraid he might say the wrong thing. He even refused to say which recent movie he thought should have come to him. He has had to stick up for himself to stay put. And for that he needs attitude, which he has in spades. Despite his alleged fallout with Bollywood’s big daddy Karan Johar during the filming of Dostana 2 three years ago, and the never-ending rumours about his co-stars and his love life, Aaryan is now more self-assured than ever.
But now that he has done a more serious role, how would he balance commercial and more cerebral cinema? “I am greedy for scripts, not money,” he said. “I want to do different things and prove that I can shoulder them well. For instance, had they made La La Land in India, I would have loved to do something like that.”