Agastya Nanda is all set for his big screen debut in the form of Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis. The film sees him play Param Vir Chakra awardee Arun Khetarpal, who laid down his life for the country in the 1971 Indo-Pak war at the age of just 21. Agastya spoke about the film and more in an interview with us.

Agastya Nanda on Ikkis, “I don’t want to hold any expectations, we tried to make the best film we could”

Ikkis is too young to die. What did the brief life of your soldier’s character Arun Khetarpal teach you about mortality and immortality?
Army and all the people we did spend time with, they emphasize the kind of impact Arun Khetarpal has had on one, the Indian Army and two, just the country as a whole. Every place you go to, they honor him with his photograph. So, I think that understanding of what he really meant to people came to me during my training time, the period before we started shoot. So, I think that wasn’t challenging, but a massive, massive responsibility.

What was it like working with the late Dharmendra?
It was the biggest privilege and most memorable moment of my brief acting career because he’s worked with four generations of my family and being the fourth one was, it doesn’t really happen often. I’m just grateful that that did happen with me though I didn’t get to share much screen space with him because the storydidn’trequire it.When you see the film, you’ll realize why we can’t share too much screen space, but it was, I mean, such a lovely experience.

What are your expectations from Ikkis?
I don’t want to hold any expectations. I feel we tried to make the best film we could. It’s up to the audiences whether they feel it is a good film or not, but I feel deeply satisfied with the amount of effort we put into it. I think there was no shortcut in trying to make this film. So, I hope, hopefully, fingers crossed, people enjoy it and feel deeply inspired by it. Awaiting the results for this and see how this pans out. So, hopefully all goes well. I was extremely excited and anxious to hold this responsibility. It’s not a small responsibility to hold.

Ikkis feels like your real beginning as an actor. What was your reaction when the role came to you?
I think I was extremely keen to get started, but the film did take time. It took almost three, four years to get completed. So, it was an extremely enjoyable process, but I think we encountered a lot of obstacles along the way, whether it was logistically or creatively, but we’re just happy now that the film’s done and we can release it soon.

Did the director Sriram Raghavan give you a lot of room to interpret the character?
Since we were portraying a real life hero, there isn’t much room for improvisation. We had to kind of go off of what factual knowledge we knew about him, about the events he went through. And there was a lot of emphasis on being as authentic as we could. Having said that, there wasn’t so much document on what he was like as a personality. So, maybe there we were allowed to explore a bit more, but still try to stay true to the nature of who he was.

What was your reaction when you were first offered Ikkis?
I think the main excitement was I signed this film when I was 21 years old. I think that was my first connect into the story. Hearing about such bravery at such a young age inspired me because I realized how little I had done with my life and seeing the kind of courage he showed at that age encouraged me to be more brave in my life.

Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Navya Nanda attend Ikkis screening to support Agastya Nanda and Simar Bhatia