Kartik Aaryan impressed everyone with his incredible physical transformation in ‘Chandu Champion’. Directed by Kabir Khan, this sports drama is based on the life of India’s first Paralympic Games gold medalist Murlikant Petkar.


Despite positive reviews, the film recorded Kartik Aaryan’s lowest post-pandemic opening. According to Sacnilk, ‘Chandu Champion’ earned just Rs 4.75 crore on Friday. The film’s occupancy went up for the night shows, with large footfalls coming from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Jaipur. At the box office, the film will face competition from horror drama ‘Munjya’, which cost nearly Rs 50 crore. Post-pandemic, 2022 Kartik horror comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 debuted to Rs 14.11 crore. Despite Rohit Dhawan’s 2023 action film Shehzada faltering at the box office, it managed a respectable opening of Rs 6 crore and Kartik’s last release, Sameer Vidwans’ 2023 romantic drama Satyaprem Ki Katha, earned Rs 8.25 crore on its opening day.

To take on the title role, Kartik Aaryan underwent a massive weight loss, from 90 kg to 72 kg. Talking about the preparation, he had told ETimes, “It was both difficult (emotionally and physically to get into the role) and they were connected. Building this body was a work of great patience and it took a very long time I never imagined a film like this, a genre like this, and this is something that I never tried to give my 200 percent – whether it was the psyche or the body, at all possible ways , reading sessions We have conducted many workshops with a dialect expert to master Marathi slang and not overdo it There is always a fine line between making it sound correct and overdoing it we started preparing for this. All said and done, I’m really proud of this film.”