As ‘Chandu Champion’ completes two years since its release, Kartik Aaryan marked the occasion with a note as he looked back at the film in retrospect and reflected on the transformative experience of portraying Paralympic gold medallist Murlikant Petkar. The actor looked back on the physical and emotional journey behind the film, calling it the most special project of his career.Kartik shared how the role changed him beyond the visible physical transformation and helped him reconnect with values he deeply believes in.He wrote on his Instagram, “Two years ago, I stepped into the shoes of a man the world had forgotten, and he ended up reminding me of everything I believed in. I’m not sure I’ve fully put it into words yet, but I’ll try. This film isn’t just about a man who refused to give up, it’s about the scars that become medals, setbacks that become comebacks.”The actor went on to reveal that while he shed 18 kilos for the role, the personal lessons he gained were far more significant. “The 18 kilos I lost were nothing compared to everything I gained. #ChanduChampion is the most special film of my life. To play Murlikant Petkar, I had to become someone I’d never been before. Every early morning, every drop of sweat, every moment of self-doubt on set- it wasn’t acting. It was living.“Kartik’s dramatic physical transformation became one of the most talked-about aspects of the film. In an earlier conversation with ETimes, his trainer Tridev Pandey had revealed that the actor’s fitness regime was designed to mirror the training schedule of a professional boxer preparing for competition. The actor is a vegetarian, only has eggs. His trainer had shared with us earlier, “Kartik is an eggetarian and there were many people who were suggesting that he start eating non-vegetarian food, but he only took my advice. Being a vegetarian myself, I knew how to get the body without eating non-veg food, and he really appreciates my physique. So he only asked me ‘ aise body ban jayegi na?’ and I told him yes.”The transformation required months of discipline and intense training. Kartik reduced his weight from 90 kg to 72 kg without the aid of performance-enhancing substances. When he began training, he reportedly struggled to perform even a single push-up. By the end of the process, he was able to do push-ups with 50–60 kg of additional weight placed on his back.His progress extended to other areas as well. From finding basic skipping routines challenging, Kartik eventually mastered 14 to 15 advanced skipping variations as part of his preparation for the role. Meanwhile, in an exclusive chat with ETimes during the release of the film, Kartik had opened up on his transformation for the part and said, “Both of them (emotionally and physically getting into the part) were difficult and they were co-related. Building this body was a work of a lot of patience and it took really long. I had never imagined a film like this, genre like this and this is something I’ve never attempted. For me, I was trying to give my 200 percent – be it the psyche or physique in every way possible. We did a lot of workshops, reading sessions. We did a lot of workshops with a dialect expert to get the Marathi lingo and to not overdo it. There’s always a thin line between making it sound correct and overdoing it. It’s been quite a while that we started prepping for this film. All said and done, I’m really proud of this film.”
