MADHYA PRADESH: Back in 1972, Indian Army soldier Murlikant Petkar, who suffered paraplegia (paralysis of both legs and the lower part of the body) in the 1965 India-Pakistan War, overcame the disability with sheer will to win the country’s first Paralympic gold with a world record timing in 50m freestyle swimming.
More than half a century later, the same Kartik Aaryan-starrer 2024 Bollywood flick, ‘Chandu Champion’, a biopic based on Petkar’s life, is inspiring a 25-year-old paraplegic youth, Nikhil Rajput, in Madhya Pradesh to chase his Paralympic dream.
Paralysed below the chest due to a mishap in March 2023, Nikhil, a resident of Bankhedi village in central MP’s Narmadapuram district, has won three gold medals and two silvers in a span of just six months at two successive State Para Athletics Championships at Gwalior and Bhopal.
He is now preparing with his younger sister, Anisha Rajput, for replicating the gold medal-winning feat at the next National Para Athletics Championships. A meritorious student and passionate Kabaddi player since school, Nikhil cleared the CDS exam in 2022.
He had returned from Delhi to his village in MP to celebrate Holi with his family before joining the army training in April 2023. But on March 6, while out for an evening walk, a thunderstorm uprooted a decades-old tree, leaving him with a spinal fracture and permanent paraplegia.
Despite surgeries, therapies, and spending nearly `20 lakh, nothing could restore his mobility. “My dream of serving the nation was crushed under that tree,” he says, eyes brimming with tears.
“With a dark future staring at me as I stood confined to the bed and wheelchair, I even asked my parents, Parvat Singh and Sharmilla Rajput, to give me poison,” said Nikhil.
“Confined to a wheelchair, I was on the verge of self-harming, but the movie ‘Chandu Champion’ in June 2024 and India’s 29 medal haul at Paris Paralympics next month compelled me to shelve the thought and galvanised me to live a new life as a para athlete,” he added.
Choosing a sport was a challenge, as most of the family savings was already spent on his treatment. A former Kabaddi player and dedicated gym enthusiast, Nikhil trusted his grip and upper-body strength, so he chose javelin. Training began with his closest ally—his younger sister, Anisha, an aspiring 100 m sprinter.
Nikhil made his debut in the February 2025 MP State Para Athletics Championship in Gwalior, winning gold in javelin with a 13 m throw and adding silver medals in shot put and discus. His performance earned him a spot at the National Para Athletics Championship in Chennai.
Six months later, at the 15th State Para Athletics Championships in Bhopal, he clinched another gold in the event and topped the podium in shot put.
Now, with qualification for the next Nationals secured, Nikhil has set his sights for a gold at the Nationals, the Asian Championship in Japan in 2026, and a Paralympic gold.