Sriram Raghavan Teases Big Scale of Arun Khetarpal Biopic Ikkis: There Will Be Tank Battles...

Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan, who is basking in the success of his recently released film Merry Christmas, has moved on to his highly-anticipated next project Ikkis. Recently, in an interview with PTI, the director opened up about his upcoming project and said it will be made on a big scale. The film is based on the life of the youngest Param Vir Chakra recipient Arun Khetarpal, and is a coming-of-age drama mounted as a "big production".

Sriram Raghavan spills the beans about Ikkis

Featuring The Archies actor Agastya Nanda and veteran star Dharmendra, the film is slated to go on floors next month. Ahead of it, the director opened up about the project and said Ikkis won't be a fantasy version of Khetarpal's life story. "It is not going to be the Amar Chitra Katha version of that story. It is not like this was his childhood and all that. It is about this young officer, who was martyred two months after his 21st birthday. It's during this time when a boy becomes a man. Then something happens 30 years later, which is again interesting... It is a bigger production, there will be tank battles, and all those things that happen in a war film. But it is also a human story, it's a drama, a coming-of-age kind of a thing," the director told PTI in an interview here.

Raghavan, who previously worked with Dharmendra on 2007's Johnny Gaddaar, spills the beans about the veteran star having a "superb" role in Ikkis. "It is wonderful. We have shot a bit of the film. He is playing Arun's father. When Arun died at the age of 21, his father was 51-year-old or so, and in the year 2000 his father was in his early 80s," he added.

Why Sriram Raghavan casted Agastya Nanda for the titular role?

When asked about why he cast Agastya Nanda in the film, the director said he was the ideal choice to play Khetarpal. He added, “We wanted a new, fresh boy. Arun Khetarpal was a good-looking boy, six-inch (tall) or something, and Agastya has got the height, look, everything.”

He continued, “Right now, he is undergoing training. We will start with him in February. Initially, it had Varun Dhawan and then after the pandemic, we had a chat about how he won't suit (the part).”