Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar proved to be a mammoth at the box office, steadily gnawing at all competition. The film has become one of the highest-grossing Hindi movies of all time. As such, when Agastya
Nanda’s Ikkis was released, many social media users were quick to draw comparisons as both films celebrated two kinds of heroes- a spy and a soldier. Now, in a recent chat with SCREEN, the film’s writers, Pooja Ladha Surti and Arijit Biswas, have addressed these comparisons.
According to Biswas, Dhurandhar and Ikkis have distinct settings. He explained, “Dhurandhar exists in a very different ecosystem; it’s about mafia, about gangsters, with its own rules. You can’t expect the moral code of a gangster film to align with a war film, which is governed by the warrior’s code.”
Similarly, Surti explained that the films should not be compared, as they can coexist. She said, “I wouldn’t want to pit one against the other. Both films are wildly different and inhabit complex worlds. In a democracy, there should be room for both Dhurandhar and Ikkis to coexist.”
Ikkis tells us the story of two battles- one fought by a son for his nation and the other fought by his father when he meets the person who killed him. As such, the story’s structure was a challenge for the writers. Biswas said, “At its core, it’s a humane story, one that could have happened in any war, between any warring nations. The toughest challenge was the structure: with the father’s story, there’s a natural arc, but with Arun, he becomes a hero only in the last 40 minutes of his life.”
He continued, “Yet, he always carried inner angst, coming from a military family, trying to prove himself. The question was always: how do you build the life of a boy that culminates in those final 40 minutes? I think we’ve managed to keep that balance, showing the sweetness and struggles of a kid striving to become an officer…”
“Firstly, it’s a true story, both the father’s and the son’s versions. On a writing level, we had a broad map of what happened and how it would end. But the driving force was literal: the son is in Pakistan, the father is in Pakistan 30 years later. For me, it’s both their battles. The son fights at Basantar; the father confronts someone claiming to have killed his son. Both are battles, different in nature, but no less intense…,” Surti explained.
Ikkis is inspired by the extraordinary life of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, India’s youngest recipient of the Param Vir Chakra. Set during the 1971 Indo-Pak War, the film traces Arun’s journey from his early days of military training to the battlefield, highlighting his bravery, sense of duty and ultimate sacrifice at the age of just 21.
Agastya Nanda essays the role of Khetarpal, while Dharmendra appears as his father in what marks his final performance on screen. The legendary actor passed away a little over a month before the film’s release, adding a poignant emotional layer to the narrative.
