Champion trailer: Debutant Sachin Dhanpal’s film is an action-packed entertainer set to release in October

When the first teaser of the Kannada film Champion came out, it was believed to be a sports drama, considering that the entire footage revolved around the protagonist’s intense workout regime – the kind that is normally seen in a film about an athlete. But the trailer that came out this week painted a very different picture.

The film, which is the launchpad of Sachin Dhanpal appears to be more of an action-packed commercial entertainer, with the right amount of romance, stunts and, an item number by Sunny Leone. According to the trailer, Champion is a common man’s fight against a gangster, which explains the high-octane stunts.

Sachin, who hails from a defence background and dreamt of a career in the armed forces that didn’t take off, was working as an investment banker prior to turning to cinema. A fitness freak, Sachin was encouraged by his friend Shivanand S Neelannavar to get into acting, with the latter funding the project, Champion. Speaking at the audio launch of the film that was attended by Sunny, Sachin had said, “This film is a new journey for me, so every step was a learning experience for me. When I met Sunny Leone, we had rehearsals, during which she was extremely friendly, which made it easier for me during the actual shoot of our song. I feel lucky to have got the opportunity to dance with her.”

Directed by Shahuraja Sindhe, who, unfortunately, passed away during the post-production work of the film, Champion has music by B Ajaneesh Loknath and cinematography by Saravanan Natarajan. The film pairs Sachin with Aditi Prabhudeva, with Devraj, Suman, Pradeep Raut, Chikkanna, Adi Lokesh, Ashok Sharma, Giri, Avinash, Rangayana Raghu, Shobraj, Cockroach Sudi, Prashant Siddi, and Mandya Ramesh, also on the cast.

Champion, which was ready for release prior to the pandemic and then got delayed like scores of others, has now zeroed in on its release date. The film will be in theatres just after the Dasara festivities on October 14. As of now, it is the only Kannada film that has announced this date and comes a week ahead of Daali Dhananjaya’s much-awaited Head Bush part 1.