'Ikkis': Mukesh Khetarpal turns emotional; tells Agastya Nanda, 'You will be Arun for life'

Mukesh Khetarpal, Arun Khetarpal's brother, could not stop crying after seeing his brother's life unfold on the big screen in Sriram Raghavan's "Ikkis" and he praised Agastya Nanda for perfectly embodying his late brother.

In the film, Agastya portrays Arun Khetarpal, the youngest Param Vir Chakra recipient in history. He was killed during the 1971 India-Pakistan war at the age of 21.




In a video shared by PVR Cinemas on Instagram, Mukesh can be seen watching the film in a theatre and crying inconsolably later.

Mukesh praised Nanda and said, "Whatever else you are, you will be Arun for life. There is no taking that away from you. Well done!"

In a conversation with director Sriram Raghavan, Mukesh said, "My grouse is you made me cry. You made me relive... Certain things were in my mind, and moment by moment, when I saw it on screen, I got so emotional I couldn't stop crying. Now that I have seen the movie, I mean, the movie is 10 times or maybe 20 times or 100 times what we see in the trailer. Oh, fantastic!"

The war drama, which also features Jaideep Ahlawat and Dharmendra in his last role, releases in theatres on January 1, 2026.

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