Agastya Nanda’s Ikkis Trailer: Sriram Raghavan’s Bold War Drama

Mumbai, October 30: The trailer for Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis doesn’t play like a war film. It plays like a memory that someone can’t quite shake off. The first frame is quiet, just mud, uniforms, and the hum of tanks rolling in. Then, a burst of sound, quick and sharp. And then silence again.

Raghavan, who made Andhadhun and Johnny Gaddaar, isn’t supposed to be doing this kind of film. But he has. And somehow, it fits. The story is about Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, who died at 21 in the 1971 war, fighting until his tank caught fire. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest wartime honour.

The film stars Agastya Nanda, with Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat, and is backed by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films. It’s slated for a December 2025 release.

Raghavan Switches the Tone

If you’ve seen Raghavan’s earlier work, this feels like a different man behind the camera. The cynicism is gone. What’s left is clarity. The trailer shows no slow-motion salutes, no chest-thumping speeches. Instead, there’s a steady rhythm of men preparing, waiting, fighting, breaking.

The Times of India called the trailer “a restrained portrait of courage.” That’s about right. You can feel the director’s control. Every shot looks like it’s been stripped of anything decorative. No dramatic colour grades. No exaggerated lighting. Just the kind of light you get in the real world, gray, uneven, harsh.

Raghavan isn’t celebrating war; he’s documenting its weight.

The Young Man at the Centre

The title Ikkis translates to “twenty-one.” It’s a number, but in this story, it’s everything. Khetarpal was only twenty-one when he chose to stay with his burning tank.

Agastya Nanda plays him. This is only his second big outing after The Archies, but he looks more grounded here. He doesn’t talk much in the trailer; most of the emotion sits in his face, in how still he stays while chaos builds around him.

Dharmendra plays his father, Lt Col M.L. Khetarpal, and it’s strange how fitting that feels. Dharmendra once embodied India’s cinematic soldiers. Now he plays the man left behind. That reversal alone adds a kind of quiet ache to the film.

According to ZoomTV, Raghavan’s approach to their relationship is “underplayed but deeply personal.” You can feel it even in the few seconds they share onscreen.

That Line Everyone’s Quoting

Maddock Films put out the trailer with a tagline that people can’t stop repeating “Woh Ikkis Ka Tha, Ikkis Ka Hi Rahega.” He was twenty-one, and he’ll always be twenty-one.

It’s a line that sounds almost too poetic until you realise it’s true. That’s how memory works. Some people never age; they just stop.

The trailer cuts between training drills and the Battle of Basantar. The colour palette is bleak dusty, smoky, and burnt green. The background score never overpowers the moment; it just sits there, like static.

Mint wrote that Nanda “looks composed, not performative.” On social media, reactions have been all over the place. Some are praising the tone. Others, of course, are bringing up nepotism. Reddit’s already full of it. One comment simply said: “Let the boy act before you judge him.”

Dharmendra, Then and Now

Watching Dharmendra now feels like looking at an old photo album that’s come alive. He’s slower, yes, but the warmth’s still there. When he appears on screen, the air shifts a little. There’s weight in his silence a father who’s proud but terrified, knowing what uniform his son has chosen.

Critics have noted the generational symmetry. The same man who played soldiers in the ’60s and ’70s is now watching one go to war. That’s not casting; that’s poetry sneaking into production.

War Films Without the War Cry

Bollywood’s war dramas have started blending into each other, all smoke and trumpet. Uri, Shershaah, Tejas, Fighter. All different, yet the same after a while. Ikkis feels like it’s rejecting that formula. It doesn’t shout about the country. It simply observes the people who protect it.

If Raghavan stays on this course, he might have made a film that’s more about loss than victory.

Marketing That Matches the Mood

The promotion so far has been surprisingly low-key. No star interviews, no overdesigned posters. Just a still of Nanda, dirt on his face, staring into something unseen. The Maddock Films tagline carries everything else.

That’s deliberate. Too much noise would drown this story. The restraint itself is the marketing.

The Real Memory Behind the Film

People who know the story of Arun Khetarpal will tell you what makes it unforgettable. It isn’t how he fought, it’s what happened later. His father met the Pakistani tank commander who’d fought against his son. There was no hatred, only mutual respect.

That meeting became a symbol of decency, two men connected by a war that neither wanted but both understood. If Ikkis ends there, quietly, it’ll leave a lump in your throat that no background score can match.

Why It Matters Now

Maybe the timing’s what makes it sting a little more. In an era where patriotism often turns performative, Ikkis seems to pull the noise down to a whisper. It reminds you that courage doesn’t always scream; sometimes, it just stands its ground and burns.

For Agastya Nanda, this could be the film that earns him his space. For Sriram Raghavan, it might be proof that thrillers aren’t his only language; empathy is, too.

The film will be released in December 2025, in a season that usually belongs to spectacle. But maybe that’s the point. Ikkis doesn’t want to compete. It just wants to be remembered.

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Ayesha Khan

Entertainment Correspondent – Ayesha@hindustanherald.in – Web

Covers films, television, streaming, and celebrity culture with a focus on storytelling trends.

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