If you have enjoyed films set predominantly in college campuses, such as Aamir Khan’s delightful ‘Three Idiots’, then Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor’s new film ‘Chhichhore’ is likely to be up your street.
Releasing in the UAE on September 5, the drama kicks off with a bunch of goofy friends in university campuses navigating the tricky world of adulthood.
Their hostel life — filled with heartbreaks, petty rivalry, misadventure and unadulterated joy at the small things in life — will form the spine of this film.
Before you book tickets for this quintessential underdog film, Gulf News tabloid! has gleaned eight reasons why you should give this friendship saga a chance...
1. ‘Chhichhore’ features Shraddha Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput, Varun Sharma and Prateik Babbar in crucial roles.
It’s Kapoor’s second release back-to-back film after her critically-panned, but box office friendly blockbuster Saaho. In an interview with Gulf News in Dubai last week, Kapoor said that she was working on multiple projects during the making of Saaho.
“I was shooting for two films. But with every film, all I want to do is really to put my best food forward and be believable in every character that I play… Ideally, I want the critics and the audiences to like our film” Said Kapoor during a press junket in Dubai for Saaho last week.
Kapoor, who plays the character Maya in ‘Chhichhore’, gravitated towards this new drama because of her role.
“It’s is an interesting film for me because I play two characters of two generations. I play a college student and also the mother of a young girl. Playing two generations in the same film is interesting,” said Kapoor in an interview with IANS.
2. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari of ‘Dangal’ fame, ‘Chhichhore’ is the story of seven friends from 1992 to present day.
It starts off with their fun-filled, zany college days during their engineering course and then progress’ towards their middle age, followed by the sunset of their lives. Director Tiwari, who directed Aamir Khan in Dangal, chose to train his attention on a handful of talented, but relatively less-popular actors.
“All of them needed to be great performers. It was something that was a given. The way I write most of my stories, there is a lot of scope for interesting performances. I was looking for people in a specific age category so that if I cut down a few years from them, they would look like college-going kids and if I add a few years, they would look like middle-aged people effortlessly. That’s why I kind of migrated towards actors who are in their early 30s,” said Tiwar in an interview with IANS.
3. ‘Chhichhore’ was partly filmed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT) campus, the alumnus of Tiwari where he studied four years.
This buddy drama will also give you a peak to his own personal college experiences such as his eventful hostel life and intra-collegiate competitions by watching Chhichhore.
“I consider myself fortunate … I got to shoot where the germ [of the idea] originated. But mostly, I shot all over Mumbai,” said Tiwari. He also culled a few characters in this film based on his personal history with his college friends.
4. Comedian Varun Sharma plays Sexa, a character with the dubious distinction of having a huge collection of adult magazines.
His risque claim to fame makes him popular among his college mates and they rag him endlessly about his stack of questionable literature. Sharma, who shot to fame with the hit Fukrey series, is becoming Bollywood’s go-to guy for goofy roles and he rarely disappoints.
5. Sushant Singh Rajput plays Anni, a young man who isn’t a charmer when it comes to courting girls.
He’s socially awkward, especially around Maya played by Kapoor. The trailers indicate a shy young man who can’t express his feelings for the woman of his dreams.
6. ‘Chhichhore’ will also acquaint you with Raj Tahir Bhasin, the villain from ‘Mardaani 2’ and ‘Force 2’.
Bhasin plays Derek, a sports champion. Reports claims that he underwent gruelling training for over four months in games including football, volleyball and kabaddi. He trained more than four hours daily with expert coaches and remembers being in extreme pain. It wasn’t just Bhasin who had to undergo physical training. All the stars from the film had to learn various sporting activities to lend credibility to their characters.
“But it was all worth it because I’m really proud of what I have done on screen and Nitesh Tiwari’s validation at the end of our shoot meant everything to me,” said Bhasin in an interview with India Today. He also claims that this film is his toughest film to date. His role is inspired by director Tiwari’s college senior, who was a popular student who excelled in sports.
“To play the role of a sports champion, I first needed to break my body and become supremely fit to convincingly look like a college athlete. Along with acing sporting disciplines, I also had to balance the emotional graph and light heartedness of a college drama while competing in varying sport. Combining the two drained a lot out of me,” Bhasin said in the same interview.
7. Actors Aamir Khan and Varun Dhawan, who were the chosen few to attend a special screening of ‘Chhichhore’, hailed the comedy as a must-watch.
While stars supporting their friends should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it isn’t often that Khan gets emotional about a film. The initial reviews published by a select critics also hail this film as a winner.
8. Producer Sajid Nadiadwala — who usually pours his money and time on blockbuster material such as Salman Khan’s action film Kick — claims his latest film venture Chhichhore is his “best film to date.”
“It is an underdog film. There are no expectations from the film right now as the trailer didn’t say much. We also don’t have any commercial songs. But when you will see the film, it is going to hit you hard. The cast and the story are wonderful. I think this is the finest film I could gift my kids,” said Nadiadwala in an interview published in English daily Indian Express.
Don’t miss it!
‘Chhichhore’ is out in the UAE on September 5.
