Shabana Azmi gives congratulatory kiss to Kartik Aaryan for Chandu Champion; director Kabir Khan reacts to film’s low BO opening

Though director Kabir Khan’s biographical sports drama Chandu Champion, starring Kartik Aaryan in the lead role, had the actor’s lowest opening in nearly a decade, it has been receiving positive responses from all quarters. Much to the delight of the makers, the positive word-of-mouth has indeed worked in favour of the movie, resulting in box office growth on Sunday. Now, legendary actor Shabana Azmi has come forward, heaping praise on the movie and commending Aaryan for his performance. Taking to Instagram, Azmi shared a photo of her planting a kiss on Aaryan’s cheek and wrote, “I was deeply moved by Kabir Khan’s film Chandu Champion and I loved Kartik Aryan’s portrayal. He played it with an almost child determination with an extremely winsome smile which prevented him from projecting it as arrogance. “Vijay Rasz as the coach is very effective. It’s a real-life story and I say Salaam Kabir for making it in his lifetime so he got to watch it with his family. Here am I with Kaartik at a special screening organised by Excel Entertainment,” the five-time National Award-winning actor added. Resharing the post to his IG feed, Aaryan noted, “Mujhe Meri Eidi Mil Gayi (I received my Eid) ??? Every word you said feels like a medal for me ??❤️❤️.” Meanwhile, director Kabir Khan himself recently reacted to Chandu Champion’s low box office opening, mentioning that it did throw them off balance. Pointing out that it is difficult to predict anything about the box office these days, Khan told Times Now that they made the movie thinking that the audience would like it. “The slow start did throw us off balance,” he said, adding that positive word-of-mouth helped revive the movie. He also expressed happiness over the increasing audience ratio. View this post on Instagram A post shared by KARTIK AARYAN (@kartikaaryan) Admitting that Aaryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa image as a prankster might have affected the film’s performance, as people found it hard to accept him in a serious role so suddenly, Khan further noted, “His fans have certain expectations from him. A new narrative, a new experience from him takes time to sink in.” Chandu Champion has, so far, recorded an India nett collection of Rs 23.56 crore, industry tracker Sacnilk reported. In her review of the movie, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “Kartik Aaryan makes you root for his character even though Kabir Khan’s film falls into declarative, underlined patches.”