In the past, sports dramas haven’t done well at the box office but Chandu Champion did surpass as a great biopic based on the life of an athlete. Jawan fame writer Sumit Arora, who has penned Chandu Champion feels that the film is apart from the ordinary biopics.
As a writer, when asked that how did he go about the script, he shares, “I remember, when Kabir Khan narrated me the script, I could sense the excitement since it’s an incredible story. It wasn’t about a particular sport, it was about the dream of a child to do something with his life. Often the circumstances boggle down but it is about being able to make it. So, this was the core drive for me while writing for it. We wanted to capture that never give up attitude for the audiences.”
Biopics are formulaic and have a set screenplay. Sharing further on striking a right balance between telling a real-life story and not glorifying it, he states, “Generally, all such sports biopics root for that one big trophy in the climax. We kept the narrative non-linear and story runs in the flashback at the police station, where Kartik’s character goes to file a complaint with his son. I wanted to break the monotony of writing format.”
Sumit Arora and Kabir Khan |
On a concluding note, Sumit recalls meeting Murlikant Petkar and his family. “It was surreal to meet the man himself. He is very simple, humble and sweet man, who doesn’t have any air about of what he has achieved so far. I and Kabir did many zoom calls with him during covid. Kabir, of course, met him way before I met him. He was also there at the screening.”
