The Ikkis movie tells the true story of India’s youngest Param Vir Chakra hero, and it is the last film Dharmendra ever made. Here are seven things every fan should know before pressing play.
The Ikkis movie is Sriram Raghavan’s war drama about Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, the 21-year-old tank officer who was killed in the Battle of Basantar during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. It opened in cinemas on 1 January 2026, making it the first Hindi release of the year, with Agastya Nanda as Arun and Dharmendra as his father.
Dharmendra passed away in November 2025, only weeks before the release, so the film arrived as both a war story and a farewell. Critics embraced it, audiences were slower to follow, and it is now streaming.
Ikkis movie at a glance
- Release date: 1 January 2026, after moving from 25 December 2025
- Director: Sriram Raghavan (Andhadhun, Badlapur)
- Writers: Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas and Pooja Ladha Surti
- Cast: Agastya Nanda, Dharmendra, Jaideep Ahlawat and Simar Bhatia
- Producer: Maddock Films, with Jio Studios releasing in India and Yash Raj Films overseas
- Runtime: 147 minutes
- Reported budget: about ₹60 crore
- Streaming: Prime Video in India from 26 February 2026
1. The Ikkis movie is a true story
Arun Khetarpal was a young officer with the 17 Poona Horse, an armoured regiment of the Indian Army. He was killed at Basantar in December 1971, aged just 21, and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest wartime gallantry award, after his death. He remains its youngest recipient.
The title says it all. Ikkis means twenty-one in Hindi, a direct reference to his age. According to the film’s Wikipedia entry, the story opens on his 21st birthday at a training camp in Ahmednagar on 14 October 1971 and follows him to the front, where his tanks faced a far larger Pakistani armoured force.
A second storyline is set in Lahore in 2001. Arun’s father travels to Pakistan 30 years after the war and is hosted by a retired Pakistani officer, Brigadier Jaan Mohammad Nisar, played by Jaideep Ahlawat. Their meeting gives the film its quiet, devastating final act.
2. It is Dharmendra’s final film
Dharmendra died in Mumbai in November 2025 at the age of 89, as Khaleej Times reported. The Ikkis movie reached cinemas weeks later, which turned every screening into a goodbye.
He plays Brigadier Madan Lal Khetarpal, Arun’s father. It is a gentle role with little of the swagger fans remember from Sholay, and that restraint is exactly why reviewers singled him out. Dharmendra also wrote and recited a poem that features in the film, while his son Bobby Deol voices the younger version of the character.
For audiences across the UAE who grew up on his films, this is the last new performance they will see from the He-Man of Hindi cinema. Our tribute to Dharmendra’s legacy in Hindi cinema looks back at the career that led here.
3. Agastya Nanda trained for years to play Arun
Agastya Nanda, Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson, takes his first big-screen lead after his streaming debut in The Archies. The preparation was serious: he trained for two to three years with the Indian Army and the Poona Horse, then at the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla, Pune, and briefly in Aurangabad for tank training.
The casting works in the film’s favour. Khetarpal was barely out of training when he went to war, and Nanda’s youth reads as vulnerability rather than inexperience. Simar Bhatia plays Kiran Kochhar, the young woman Arun loved.
4. Real tanks were built for the battle scenes
Raghavan wanted the armour to feel real. The production built three working Centurion tanks and two dummy tanks from scratch over several months, and a large share of the budget went into them. The tank sequences were shot in marshland and rivers across North India, with Anil Mehta behind the camera.
It is also the first Raghavan film to lean heavily on visual effects, used in post-production to extend the battlefield. The result is a war film that feels grounded rather than flashy.
5. The Ikkis movie was years in the making
The project was announced in 2019 on what would have been Khetarpal’s 69th birthday, with Varun Dhawan originally attached. Dhawan later left over scheduling, and the new cast was unveiled on 8 December 2022, Dharmendra’s 87th birthday. COVID-19 then pushed filming back.
The release date moved too. The film was first planned for 2 October 2025, shifted to 25 December 2025 to avoid a clash with Kantara: Chapter 1, and finally opened on 1 January 2026 on more than 4,000 screens across India.
6. Ikkis movie reviews: critics loved it
The reviews were warm almost across the board. Filmfare’s own Devesh Sharma gave it 4 out of 5, as did Bollywood Hungama and Firstpost. NDTV, Hindustan Times, Times of India and Rediff each gave 3.5, and The Indian Express gave 3. On Rotten Tomatoes, all ten counted critics rated it positively.
Three things came up again and again:
- the anti-war tone, which avoids the chest-thumping common in recent war films
- Dharmendra’s quiet performance as a grieving father
- Raghavan’s restraint in the battle sequences
7. The box office did not match the praise
Commercially, the Ikkis movie struggled. It opened to an estimated ₹7.28 crore and finished at about ₹36.95 crore worldwide against a reported ₹60 crore budget. The Free Press Journal’s first-quarter round-up puts its India total at ₹31.85 crore and lists it as a failure.
Timing hurt. It opened while Dhurandhar was still filling cinemas, and three weeks later Border 2, a much louder film about the same 1971 war, took over the Republic Day weekend.
Where to watch the Ikkis movie
The film began streaming on Prime Video in India on 26 February 2026. Streaming catalogues differ by country, so viewers in the UAE should search for it in the Prime Video app. It is well worth seeking out if you prefer war stories about loss rather than victory.
Ikkis movie FAQs
Is Ikkis Dharmendra’s last film?
Yes. Ikkis is Dharmendra’s final film. He died in November 2025, before its release on 1 January 2026.
What does Ikkis mean?
Ikkis means twenty-one in Hindi. It refers to Arun Khetarpal’s age when he was killed in action in 1971.
Is the Ikkis movie on OTT?
Yes. The Ikkis movie has streamed on Prime Video in India since 26 February 2026. Check the Prime Video app for availability in the UAE.
Love Dharmendra’s work? Read Monali Thakur’s tribute to Dharmendra, and find more stories in our Bollywood section.