Kartik Aaryan never shies away from talking about his personal and professional challenges. The actor, who is gearing up for the release of Chandu Champion, recently opened up about the financial issues his family faced, while he was growing up. During his appearance on Raj Shamani‘s podcast, the actor shared, “I have always had a big ‘ladai’ with money. Growing up in Gwalior, we were in debt, because my parents had taken debts for their careers. It wasn’t like we were poor, but we weren’t rich. We were EMI people. In this sort of situation, every expense is calculated. For the longest time, we had more debt than income.”
Kartik Aaryan also talked about how he used to borrow money from his friends. He shared, “Even when I came to Mumbai, I’d taken an education loan. Yeh loans waali life rahi hai, doston ke beech udhaari waali life rahi hai (Loans were a common part of life, borrowing money from friends was a regular thing). For the longest time, I was so accustomed to borrowing money from friends and telling them that I’d return it in a few days. When I came to Mumbai, I knew that I had to earn. I was tired of borrowing money, travelling by train…”
Kartik Aaryan also revealed that he earned ₹ 70,000 for his first movie, Pyaar Ka Punchnama.
Meanwhile, Chandu Champion has been directed by Kabir Khan and backed by Sajid Nadiadwala. In the biographical drama, Kartik plays the role of Murlikant Petkar, who won an individual gold medal in the 1972 Summer Paralympics, in Heidelberg, Germany.
For his character in Chandu Champion, Kartik Aaryan went through a dramatic physical transformation. Talking about the actor’s fitness journey, director Kabir Khan told India Today, “On a minute-to-minute basis, because it was not an easy transformation. It was not an easy journey to undertake. I had to put in a huge team of physical trainers, physiotherapists, dietitians, boxing coaches, swimming coaches, and wrestling coaches. It was a massive team. And literally, for 1.5 years, Karthik has lived the life of an athlete. He would wake up early in the morning, go to the gym, have his food, and then go for a boxing session. Then come back and sleep. We even had to monitor his sleep.”
Chandu Champion will be hitting the big screens on June 14.
