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Arjun Ashokan in the film | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Starring alongside are Vishakh Nair and Roshan Mathew, in the lead, Arjun’s Loco Lobo from Mattancherry, of flashy clothes and big hair is very different from what he has done before. Chatha Pacha is also very different in terms of the amount of action in it. “I had been wanting to do a film like this, and so when it came my way, I had to be in.” And Adhvaith is a long-time friend and was an AD on Thuramukham as well.
The trailer suggests very ‘physical’ action sequences where the actors jump, leap and crash into each other as in the format of WWE. Behind-the-scenes shots shared on their socials show how the actors trained for the wrestling sequences.
Arjun confesses that Chatha Pacha is one of his more physically demanding films for the reason that they had to train rigorously because “the film is WWE-inspired and hence we put in three months of physical training. There was no other way that we could convince the audience!” The training was focussed more on the fights and injury prevention.
Arjun says he enjoyed the entire process, right from these training sessions to the filming. “Though I know Roshan and Vishakh, I had not worked with them before. But we had a good time through the process, especially doing a great movie with them. This is the first time I am working on a film of this genre, with a carnival-like fun feel, so it was nice being able to do it with them,” says the actor. His takeaway from Chatha Pacha, he says, is keeping fit and working out. “Right now, however, I am recuperating from an injury, not sustained during filming but while working out.”
Arjun Ashokan
Chatha Pacha demanded a year’s commitment from Arjun, during which he did not take on other projects. For someone who works in an industry where numbers matter, Arjun is chill. “That I was not doing more films in that one year did not bother me at all. Firstly, I had releases so I did not feel like there were no movies and also, I didn’t have any on hand,” Arjun jokes.
Among his films of 2025 is Thalavara, in which he essayed Jyothish, a vitiligo-affected person with such aplomb that the understated performance came in for a lot of praise even though the film did not do very well at the box office. His next projects are Disco, which was recently announced, and director Arun Gopy’s debut production. That is not all, he will also be seen in the Tamil film Moonwalk.
Also, the team deliberately decided to keep a low profile about the film, whilst they were preparing for and filming Chatha Pacha. “We did not want to draw attention to it so that our transformation would be noticed, and it did get noticed.”
The ‘fights’, as seen in the trailer, are high octane and have been choreographed by stunt director Kalai Kingston, the man behind the Marco stunts. “Kalai master did not give any of us stunt doubles; he made us do all our stunts. We were expecting body doubles but he refused. Once we started, we felt like Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible films doing his own stunts.”
Chatha Pacha is testimony that Arjun likes to mix up things, while consciously avoiding the trap of stereotype. So is he doing it intentionally? “Yes, I am,” he says
“I want to be a part of good films led by a good crew and cast; only then will my work also get noticed. I am in a supporting role in Disco because it is a good team. Having said that, I am not specifically picking films, but I am choosing the best from the ones coming my way.”
Chatha Pacha is playing in theatres
Published – January 22, 2026 10:16 am IST
