'Chandu Champion Action Isn't An Item Number'

When action is detached from sentiment, it serves as a promotional tool in the movie, much like an item number, feels Director Kabir Khan, who has pulled off a pivotal eight-minute-long war sequence in his latest film Chandu Champion.

The shot highlights the 'emotional drama' of the story instead of showing action for the sake of it, says Khan, adding that they shot it at 9,000 feet above sea level in Kashmir's Aru Valley.

After four days of rehearsal, the section was filmed in a day even though it featured fighter jets, bomb blasts and intense combat scenes.

"Action for the sake of action never really works, then it's an item number. Action works when the emotional drama and arc of the story moves forward with the action," Khan says.

"The start and end of the action has to move and in this film (Chandu Champion), it is huge. It's one of the most pivotal points in the plot," he says.

Inspired by the life of India's first Paralympic gold medalist Murlikant Petkar, Chandu Champion stars Kartik Aaryan in the title role as a man across ages and phases, including being an Indian Army soldier, a wrestler, a boxer, a 1965 war veteran and a swimmer.

Khan, known for films like Ek Tha Tiger, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, '83 and Kabul Express, said the underlying reason for shooting the eight minute uncut sequence was to stay close to his protagonist and experience the events through his eyes.

"We are so used to doing things in films that if it's not happening, take two or take three or take four, and we can keep achieving. Here, we had no take two. It was only one take and we had to get it correct because a lot of big structures were going to crumble and fall and you cannot set it up all over again.

"On top of that, we were shooting on location in Kashmir at a very high altitude. Carrying people and equipment up there and training them for several days before attempting the single take was quite a task," the 55 year old added.

Chandu Champion is Khan's next directorial venture after '83, which had released during the peak of the third wave of the pandemic in December 2021. Fronted by Ranveer Singh, the film was based on India's first World Cup win in cricket.

"COVID changed the planet and our lives. There was a time when we were unsure about how it was going to pan out. Strangely, my film ('83) was on the cusp of that. Unfortunately, we released on the day the third wave sort of hit us in our face," the filmmaker recalls.

"Exhibition was hit badly, it took them months to come back to normal. They couldn't come back to full capacity for seven-eight months. A lot of projects had stalled, so there was a backlog of actors' dates, projects being greenlit.

"We are facing it even now. If you notice, there are not too many projects that are coming out from the industry. It was a tumultuous time but it was a tumultuous time for the whole planet so I should not be complaining," he adds.

Hyderabad-born Khan said he spent the time during the pandemic-induced lockdowns 'diving deep' into some stories, including Chandu Champion.

"Everything has a silver lining and the fact that I got the time to dive deep into a story like Chandu Champion, plan it the way we could, prep it the way we could, so that when we finally made it, it looked a certain way...

"You need time to make it look a certain way. Here we are, (it's been) a long gap but (I have) come back with something I'm very proud of and (something) I know will be a strong part of my filmography for years to come."