Kabir Khan recently opened up about his biographical sports drama Chandu Champion failing to do a good business at the box-office. He said that box-office number is not the only parameter to judge a film. According to Sacnilk, the Kartik Aaryan starrer managed to do a business of Rs 63.56 crore in India.
In an interview with Mid-day, Kabir said, “Any filmmaker who says that box office doesn’t matter is not speaking the truth; it does. But it’s not the only parameter to judge a film. The most important for me is how much the film is remembered and spoken about, after some time passes. With Chandu Champion now and 83 (2021) earlier, there have been repeat viewings on OTT.”
He added, “People kept going back to the film. That shows a film’s legacy and how long it stays in people’s memory. In terms of box office numbers, my first film, Kabul Express [2006] was the lowest out of all my films. But after 18 years, people come up to me and say they loved it. So, there are lots of different parameters today through which you judge how deeply has a film connected.”
Inspired by the life of India's first Paralympic gold medalist Murlikant Petkar, Chandu Champion stars Kartik in the title role as a man across ages and phases, including being an Indian Army soldier, a wrestler, a boxer, a 1965 war veteran and a swimmer.
The film is written by Kabir himself, Sumit Arora, and Sudipto Sarkar. Jointly produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Kabir Khan, it was released in theatres on June 14.