Tahir Raj Bhasincompetes with national level runners in Chhichhore!

29 Aug 2019

TahirRaj Bhasin has always been regarded as an actor to watch out for. He wowed everyone with his brilliant debut as a villain in the super hit and highly acclaimed Mardaani. Inhis next, Dangal director Nitesh Tiwari s coming of age film Chhichhore he will be seen essaying the role of a sports champion in an engineering college. In one particular scene in which he will be seen participating in an adrenaline-pumping relay race,Tahiractually competed with national level runners! Chhichhore is the toughest film that I have done. 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, Tahir says. It took four months of gruelling training in 4 different kinds of sports athletics, football, kabaddi, and volleyball to become confident of playing, Derek, my character. I used to train for about 4-5 hours daily with national coaches and I remember being so exhausted and my body being in serious pain after each training session. But it was all worth it because Im really proud of what I have done on screen and Nitesh Tiwaris validation at the end of our shoot meant everything to me, he adds. About the scene in which he competes with national-level runners, Tahir says, the running shot in the trailer was the biggest challenge to shoot. It was a scene where I was not told that I was running with the best in the country until after the shot was over! I gave it all and I remember how in Mumbais most humid months shooting Chhichhores sports scenes was tough because of the serious athletic skill I was up against. Im just proud and happy that, in the moment as Derek, I could compete with them and do a great job for my director under pressure. Tahir Raj Bhasin plays the role of Derek in Chhichhore. Derek was Niteshs real-life senior from engineering college. The real Derek was an extremely close friend of Nitesh and was a driven and passionate sportsman who excelled in whichever sporting discipline he competed. The film is set for September 6 release. ALSO READ: Tahir Raj Bhasin moved to IIT-Bombay before Chhichhore shoot!