At the 72nd National Awards, Kartik Aaryan was one of the many prominent names to be honoured with an award. Kartik Aaryan won his first-ever Best Actor National Award for his inspiring performance in the sports biopic, Chandu Champion. This movie seemed to be his lucky charm with him also bagging his first-ever black lady as the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male) at the 70th Hyundai Filmfare Awards 2025. The honourable President Droupadi Murmu did the honours of presenting him with this prestigious award and later shared some words of praise. She said, “He (Murlikant Petkar) was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2018, and I congratulate Kartik Aaryan for bringing his personality to life through his performance.”
Kabir Khan has enjoyed a great career as a filmmaker with a series of critically acclaimed hits, including Ek Tha Tiger, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, ‘83, and Chandu Champion amongst many others. The last movie he directed was My Melbourne in 2024 alongside Arif Ali and Rima Das, along with others.
Kartik Aaryan starred in the avatar of Murlikant Petkar in Kabir Khan’s movie Chandu Champion. Following his recent achievement of the Best Actor award at the 72nd National Awards, the director of Chandu Champion, Kabir Khan, whom he worked with, put up a post on his socials. He captioned it, “Humesha Sher ki chaal Chalna mere champion… (Always walk with the gait of a Lion, my champion) with that unmistakable laugh of yours…”
On his social platform, Kartik took the time to say his thanks to the director of the film for entrusting him with the project. He said, “I will always be grateful and indebted to Kabir sir and Sajid sir for trusting me with the responsibility of playing India’s first Paralympic Gold Champion, Murlikant Petkar sir, on the big screen. The journey was extremely painful, but the result is as sweet as rasmalai! I feel humbled and emotional at the same time.”
Both Kartik Aryan and Kabir Khan are reportedly set to return for a new sports adventure film somewhere in the year 2027.