India, Aug. 22 -- At 17, life is anything but simple. It's a messy mix of ambition, rebellion, friendships, and the looming shadow of parental expectations. Ghich Pich, a stirring new coming-of-age drama, dives headfirst into that very chaos, and at its centre is Aryan Rana, who plays Anurag Bansal, a boy caught between being an ideal son and teenager who just wants to breathe easy. With raw honesty and youthful energy, Aryan steps into the knots of growing up, bringing to screen a story that feels both personal and universal. "The title Ghich Pich really captures the essence of the film," Aryan explains. "It's a colloquial term we use when things are tangled or all messed up. That's exactly what the story reflects." For Anurag, the entanglement is personal - balancing a studious and driven persona with the desire to have fun, all under the crushing weight of his father's expectations. That push and pull, Aryan says, defines his character's journey. But landing the role wasn't straightforward. Aryan went through nearly eight rounds of auditions across different cities, each time asked to approach the character in a new way. "At one point, the team wasn't fully convinced," he recalls. "But Ankur Singla, our director, stood by me and kept pushing me to dig deeper," he adds. Aryan's commitment went beyond rehearsals as he lost nearly 10kg to convincingly embody a 17-year-old. What Aryan carries most from the experience isn't the physical transformation, but a renewed belief in his craft. "Only a slightly mad bunch of people choose acting as a profession," he quips, "and I like to believe I'm a proud flag-bearer of that madness." Ghich Pich also stands apart in its storytelling approach. Rooted in director Ankur Singla's memories of growing up in Chandigarh, the film strikes a fine balance between indie rawness and mainstream entertainment. "Ankur's inspiration draws from Indian indie gems like Udaan and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, and his narrative finds a delicate balance between mainstream appeal and intimate realism, a genre often dubbed as mindie cinema. It sparks conversations on ambition, toxic masculinity, and acceptance, but without being preachy," says the 23-year-old actor. "I am elated with the kind of response Ghich Pich has got. It has an IMDb rating of 8.7 and received some really encouraging reviews from critics," says Aryan, who has shared the screen with co-stars Kabir Nanda and Shhivam Kakar along with late Nitesh Pandey, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, and Satyajit Sharma....