Sushant Singh Rajput was the first choice for this Kartik Aaryan film that flopped at box office, earned only Rs...

The 2024 sports drama Chandu Champion was based on the life of Padma Shri Murlikant Petkar, who was India's first gold medallist at the Paralympics. Petkar clinched the gold medal in the 50 m freestyle event at the 1972 Summer Paralympics, held in West Germany. Kartik Aaryan portrayed the now 80-year-old veteran sportsperson in the film. Kabir Khan, who has famously directed Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Ek Tha Tiger, and 83, helmed Chandu Champion.

In a recent interview, Bhuvan Arora, who played Murlikant's friend Karnail Singh in the 2024 release, shared that Sushant Singh Rajput had earlier bought the rights to make Petkar's biopic before the actor shockingly passed away in 2020. Talking to Hindi Rush, Bhuvan said, "Ironically, I did a movie Chandu Champion. Initially, Sushant was supposed to do it. He had the rights to that film. Story rights were also with Sushant. He must have bought it from Murlikant Petkar. Even Murlikant sir said it in one of the interviews. I bumped into Sushant at the airport and he told me that he was going to do a film about a paralympic swimmer. We both loved acting and used to talk to each other, we had discussed on the film."

The Farzi actor further added, "Obviously, it slipped off my mind. Recently, when Chandu Champion was released, I saw an interview of Murlikant sir in which he said that Sushant was supposed to do this film initially. I don’t know the details of it but ironically, that time I wasn’t there in that movie. Now, I was a part of this film but Sushant wasn’t there." Bhuvan worked with Sushant in the 2013 romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance.

Chamdu Champion received rave reviews from the audiences and critics, but failed at the box office. Made in around Rs 120 crore, the biographical sports drama failed to recover its budget as it earned Rs 62 crore net in India and grossed Rs 88 crore worldwide, as per the industry tracking portal Sacnilk.

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