The recently-released Kartik Aaryan-starrer film Chandu Champion is a biopic of war hero-turned-Paralympic champion Murlikant Petkar. The film chronicles the life of Petkar from the early 60s to the present day and includes several real incidents and historical figures. One that caught the attention of many is a figure popular in the Mumbai gambling circles for decades – Ratan Khatri.
What is Ratan Khatri’s role in Chandu Champion?
Mild spoilers for Chandu Champion ahead! In the film, after Murlikant Petkar is paralysed following his injuries in the 1965 Indo-Pak War, he is taken to a military hospital in Bombay. There, he finds a caretaker in Topaz (Rajpal Yadav), a hospital attendant with a gambling habit. Eventually, Petkar lends Topaz money to gamble on his behalf. The sequence that follows shows one Ratan Khatri as the chief guest, where he is introduced as the matka king of Bombay.
Who was the real Ratan Khatri?
Not much is known about the early life of Ratan Khatri except that he hailed from Sindh and came to India during the Partition. Having settled in Bombay, he introduced organised gambling in the form of matka to the city in the 1960s. By the 70s, he was the gambling kingpin of the city, raking in lakhs of rupees each day. This earned him the moniker of Matka King of Bombay. In 1975, when Emergency was declared, Khatri even spent time in prison. Khatri retired from the matka business in the 90s and continued to live a quiet life in Mumbai. He passed away in 2020 when he was in his 80s.
Ratan Khatri’s upcoming biopic
A series inspired by the rise and fall of Ratan Khatri is now in the works. However, the show, as per sources, will be a fictional story showing the journey of a matka king in Bombay, not explicitly Khatri. Starring Vijay Varma in the lead role, this show is titled Matka King and will stream on Amazon Prime Video. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, the show also stars Kritika Kamra and Gulshan Grover. Recently, the streaming platform announced that the filming of the show has begun along with a first look poster of Varma as the matka king.
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