Mumbai, Aug 29 (IANS): "Mardaani" actor Tahir Raj Bhasin considers "Dangal" director Nitesh Tiwaris forthcoming film "Chhichhore" to be his toughest one so far.

After doing special appearances in films like "Kai Po Che!" and "One by Two", Tahir shot to fame with "Mardaani" in 2014 for his villainous role. He followed it up with "Force 2" and "Manto". Now, he is looking forward to the release of "Chhichhore".

"'Chhichhore' is the toughest film that I have done. To play the role of a sports champion, I first needed to break my body and become supremely fit to convincingly look like a college athlete. Along with acing sporting disciplines, I also had to balance the emotional graph and light heartedness of a college drama while competing in varying sport! Combining the two drained a lot out of me," Tahir said.

"It took four months of gruelling training in four different kinds of sports - athletics, football, kabaddi and volleyball to become confident of playing, Derek, my character. I used to train for about four to five hours daily with national coaches and I remember being so exhausted and my body being in serious pain after each training session. But it was all worth it because I'm really proud of what I have done on screen and Nitesh Tiwari's validation at the end of our shoot meant everything to me," he added.

The running shot in the trailer of the film was the biggest challenge for him to shoot.

"It was a scene where I was not told that I was running with the best in the country until after the shot was over! I gave it all and I remember how in Mumbai's most humid months shooting sports scenes of 'Chhichhore' was tough because of the serious athletic skill I was up against. I'm just proud and happy that in the moment, as Derek, I could compete with them and do a great job for my director under pressure," said Tahir.