Iran celebrities pay tribute to World wrestling champion

Iran celebrities and athletes present at a public screening of ‘Takhti, the World Champion’ have paid their respects to the late wrestling champion.

Iranian actors Vishka Asayesh, Setareh Pesyani, and Sirous Alvand were among the film’s cast present at the Thursday screening along with athletes Hossein Kalani, Alireza Rezaei, and Alireza Heidari.

Actress Vishka Asayesh described ‘Takhti, the World Champion’ as “one of the most valuable and compelling films to have been produced in the last few years,” adding that she would “highly recommend this movie to cinema and art lovers nationwide.”

Prior to the films screening, former Persepolis FC and Iranian National Team football star Hossein Kalani said: “Each one of us knows of champions in each period which we consider heroes, although I consider the definition of a hero to be on a higher level, with a special meaning consisting of a combination of a person’s actions, behavior, and intellect.”

“After reading many stories about chivalrous men in the past, we were lucky to have Takhti as a contemporary figure who would become our role model of chivalry and a hero in the truest sense of the word,” said Kalani.

The footballer further added, “He was a hero who was an underdog. In all these years, no one was able to accomplish a drop of the sea of his accomplishments. He will always have a place in our hearts, and we are proud to have a character like him.”

Olympic champion Alireza Rezaei highly praised the film and thanked the film’s crew and cast, calling the flick “a realistic movie based on facts which is the most complete and accurate account on the life of the hero.”

Directed by Bahram Tavakkoli and produced by Saeed Malekan, the film depicts the life of Iranian world wrestling champion Gholamreza Takhti.

Takhti was born in Tehran on August 27, 1930. At the age of 15, he enrolled in Poulad Club in southern Tehran and was trained to become a wrestler.

He won his first Iranian championship in 1950 and later in 1951 he won a silver medal at the world freestyle championship in Helsinki, Finland, making it one of the first international medals gained by Iranian wrestlers.

Although Takhti won numerous other medals, that is not the only reason for his popularity among Iranians. He proved to be a real hero by showing such exemplary character as being of any sort of help to the poor and needy.

The film which premiered at the 37th Fajr Film Festival received 11 nominations at the event and was awarded two Crystal Simorgh awards for Best Cinematography and Best Set Design.

Among the cast list are Atila Pesyani, Mahour Alvand, Hamid-Reza Azarang, Banipal Shoumoun, Parivash Nazariyeh, Behnoush Tabatabaee, Farhad Ayish, Siavash Tahmoures, Masoumeh Qasemipour, Setareh Pesyani, Alireza Goudarzi, and Shirin Yazdanbakhsh.

MB/AG