Sriram Raghavan on casting Agastya Nanda in Ikkis after initially considering Varun Dhawan, “Everyone felt the actor playing Arun Khetarpal must be younger”

The verdict is out. With Ikkis, a new star is born. Agastya Nanda, though of impeccable pedigree, has none of his grandparents Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, nor his uncle Abhishek Bachchan’s personality traits.

 

Sriram Raghavan on casting Agastya Nanda in Ikkis after initially considering Varun Dhawan, “Everyone felt the actor playing Arun Khetarpal must be younger”

 

Agastya follows his own music and delivers a symphonic flourish with a performance that is deeply lyrical and metre-specific.

 

Director Sriram Raghavan said that he instinctively knew Agastya was right to play the martyred soldier. Ever since Varun Dhawan was seen to be missing from the star cast of Sriram Raghavan’s war matryr's bio-pic Ikkis, there has been considerable speculation on whether Varun has fallen out with producer Dinesh Vijan or director Raghavan or both.

 

Putting all speculation to rest Sriram said, “It’s nothing like that. Varun’s relations have not changed with either Dinesh or me. It is the age factor which played villain. The Param Vir Chakra winning soldier Arun Khetarpal died defending our country at 21. Varun is now 37-38. So, chronologically they don’t match. When Ikkis was first announced five years ago, I thought we would pull it off with Varun. But when we were ready to film, everyone felt the actor playing Arun Khetarpal must be younger. Agastya is just the right age to play Arun Khetarpal. Besides that, Agastya is hugely talented, as you can see.”

 

Also Read: From Agastya Nanda to Dharmendra: 5 actors playing real-life characters in Ikkis

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