Agastya Nanda’s next Bollywood outing - a war hero in ‘Ikkis’

Agastya Nanda, grandson of Amitabh Bachchan and son of Shweta and Anil Nanda, made his acting debut in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘The Archies’, a movie based on Archies comics last year. The film had also marked the debuts of Suhana Khan, Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter, and Khushi Kapoor, Sridevi’s youngest daughter. It received a mixed reaction from the audience. Now, Agastya has started working on his next film, titled ‘Ikkis’, with director Sriram Raghavan and producer Dinesh Vijan.

‘Ikkis’ is a biopic of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal PVC, who is the most highly decorated hero of the 1971 War. Agastya, who is going to essay the character of Arun in his second film, said, “I am firstly grateful to have this opportunity, I am in great hands with Sriram sir and the producers. I am just surrendering to the process and hoping to make them proud.”

Sriram explained that he is not the tough task master with a newcomer loke Agastya and said, “In this film, I think Army is the tough task master for him, he has been taking a lot of training, as you can see he has lost a lot of weight and everything. I have got hammered in this project.”

Talking about his association with Sriram again after ‘Badlapur’, Dinesh said, “Sriram happens to be my favourite director as an audience member. I think ‘Badlapur’ somehow showed the emotional side, which we thought we have and it did make everyone emotional. But I feel ‘Ikkis’ is his most emotional film so far. I don’t think there is any scene in this film which is similar to anything he has done, yet it is quirky and crazy. The story of ‘Ikkis’, as told by Sriram Raghavan, makes it unique. We needed a boy who would look 18 and we found that in Agastya and we are very proud with the kind of hard work he is putting in. The teaser is just a glimpse. We are beginning the major scenes now. It is a father-son story, so it is kind of an ode to our fathers, which is why it is so special.”

Apart from Agastya, ‘Ikkis’ also stars Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat in important roles in the film. Post theatrical release, the film will be available on Amazon Prime.