Agastya Nanda reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Saat Hindustani’: director Sriram Raghavan

Mumbai, Dec 24 (PTI) Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan says when he first met his "Ikkis" actor Agastya Nanda, he reminded him of megastar Amitabh Bachchan in his debut film "Saat Hindustani".

Agastya, who is the grandson of Bachchan, will be seen as Arun Khetrpal, the youngest recipient of the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honour.

Bachchan made his acting debut with the 1969 film, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas.

For Raghavan, Agastya, who made his acting debut with "The Archies" in 2023, perfectly fit the bill for the role as "Ikkis" is the story of a "boy becoming a man".

"I was very clear I wanted a new boy, somebody who's got absolute age on his face. So Dinu called me to his office and said, there's somebody, just meet him. I went there, met him, and a couple of minutes later, this is Agastya Nanda.

"I had not seen too many pictures of him, and even 'Archies' had not come out. But somehow, I liked him. We were just talking to see whether we were able to have a conversation somewhere. He reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan and ‘Saath Hindustani’, which I have seen," Raghavan said in a media interaction.

The director praised Agastya for putting his best forward for “Ikkis”, which is also the last movie to feature Dharmendra, who passed away last month.

"It is not just a performance. For example, he is a commander of a tank, so he has to run up a tank, like 50 times he must run to show us that he's at ease with it. It is not easy. Then there's a scene, where he's shut inside a tank, and there's one exit in the bottom, which is like going through some sort of pipe. The main thing for him was to develop what they call, OLQ, officer-like quality,” he said.

"It's very claustrophobic (in the tank). When we got into it (tank), we shut the thing, but then you've got to immediately get out. Imagine it moving through water and all that. There are explosions happening and the tank has to stop at a certain place. So, these are not easy things. Luckily, nothing happened,” Raghavan added.

“Ikkis” narrates the story of Khetarpal, a second Lieutenant, who was martyred at the age of 21 during the Battle of Basantar in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

The film also features Jaideep Ahlawat, Sikandar Kher, and newcomer Simrar Bhatia, niece of Akshay Kumar among others.

"What was interesting was that on one hand, we’ve Agastya, and his whole tank mates, and the crew officers and they're all youngsters, like under the age of 25. Then there's Jaideep and Dharam ji, which is another set of veterans and accomplished actors. So, I had a superb time with the actors, they were all different kinds of actors,” Raghavan said.

The director, known for helming critically-acclaimed thriller films like “Ek Hasina Thi”, “Johnny Gaddaar”, “Badlapur”, “Andhadhun”, and “Merry Christmas”, said “Ikkis” has pushed him to explore a different genre as a storyteller.

"It's all finally about the story. This one has given me the confidence to try something else,” he said, without divulging details about his next film.

"Ikkis”, produced by Dinesh Vijan via Maddock Films, is set to release in theatres on January 1, 2026. PTI KKP BK BK