Much is being talked about Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming Boxing film ‘Toofaan’. Right from Farhan Akhtar’s grueling training regimen to director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s approach to the mixed response that Toofaan’s trailer had received.
Despite the immense buzz around the film, we seem to have overlooked one major aspect of an apparently good vs bad movie like ‘Toofaan’. Who plays Apollo Creed / Clubber Lang / Ivan Drago to Farhan Akhtar’s Toofaan? Because the true strength of a movie hero can only be accurately judged if the film’s villain is portrayed equally, if not, more powerful than the hero.
The question was answered by the makers of the film when they recently posted a 30-second video clip from the movie. The clip features the titular underdog who is up against the formidable and arrogant defending champion Dharmesh Patil, which is essayed by an antagonist we all love: Darshan Kumar.
However, long back in the year 2019, when ‘Toofaan’ was under production, Darshan Kumar’s role as the film’s antagonist was revealed. The actor has reportedly watched videos of the (in)famous boxer Mike Tyson to get into the skin of his baddie boxer’s character.
Regarding his training rigorous training schedule with internationally acclaimed trainer Darrell Foster, Darshan Kumar had recently stated that the training part was a once in a lifetime experience for him. He further said that his trainer did not train him for the role, in fact, he had trained him like a real pro boxer so that in the film, it would look like two real boxers are fighting instead of actors portraying boxers.
Darshan Kumar was last seen in the immensely acclaimed spy series ‘The Family Man’ as one of the main antagonists Major Sameer. Prior to that, he also featured in ‘Aashram’ and ‘Avrodh the Siege Within’. But the films that got his acting chops noticed were another Boxing movie ‘Mary Kom’ (starring Priyanka Chopra) and the hard-hitting survival thriller ‘N.H 10’ starring Anushka Sharma.
‘Toofaan’ is scheduled to start streaming on the Amazon Prime Video OTT platform from tomorrow, that is, July 16, 2021, onwards.