‘The army and all the people we did spend time with, they emphasised the kind of impact Arun Khetarpal has had on one, the Indian Army and two, just the country as a whole.’

Raj Kapoor’s great grandson and Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda finally makes a big screen debut with Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis.

“Hearing about such bravery at such a young age inspired me because I realised how little I had done with my life and seeing the kind of courage he showed at that age encouraged me to be braver in my life,” Agastya tells Subhash K Jha.

What did the brief life of your character Arun Khetarpal teach you about mortality and immortality?

The army and all the people we did spend time with, they emphasised 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 honour him with his photograph.

I think that understanding of what he really meant to people came to me during my training time, the period before we started shoot.

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 story didn’t require it.

When you see the film, you’ll realise why we can’t share too much screen space, but it was 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 people enjoy it and feel deeply inspired by it.

Ikkis feels like your real beginning as an actor, what was your reaction when the role came to you?

I was extremely keen to get started, but the film did take time.

It took almost three, four years to get completed.

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 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?

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 realised how little I had done with my life and seeing the kind of courage he (Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, Param Vir Chakra) showed at that age encouraged me to be braver in my life.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff

‘The army and all the people we did spend time with, they emphasised the kind of impact Arun Khetarpal has had on one, the Indian Army and two, just the country as a whole.’

Raj Kapoor’s great grandson and Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda finally makes a big screen debut with Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis.

“Hearing about such bravery at such a young age inspired me because I realised how little I had done with my life and seeing the kind of courage he showed at that age encouraged me to be braver in my life,” Agastya tells Subhash K Jha.

What did the brief life of your character Arun Khetarpal teach you about mortality and immortality?

The army and all the people we did spend time with, they emphasised 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 honour him with his photograph.

I think that understanding of what he really meant to people came to me during my training time, the period before we started shoot.

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 story didn’t require it.

When you see the film, you’ll realise why we can’t share too much screen space, but it was 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 people enjoy it and feel deeply inspired by it.

Ikkis feels like your real beginning as an actor, what was your reaction when the role came to you?

I was extremely keen to get started, but the film did take time.

It took almost three, four years to get completed.

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 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?

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 realised how little I had done with my life and seeing the kind of courage he (Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, Param Vir Chakra) showed at that age encouraged me to be braver in my life.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff