Filmmaker Vinod Kapri’s conversation with army aspirant is viral. Here’s what happened

Filmmaker and author Vinod Kapri has shared a video which has gone viral on social media. The video shows Kapri, who is driving a car, interacting with a boy who is sprinting on a road in Noida in the dead of night. The filmmaker, presumably out of curiousity, slows down his car and initiates a conversation with him.

“This is PURE GOLD. Last night, at around 12am, I saw this boy running on a road in Noida with a bag on his shoulders. I thought that he is facing some trouble, so I should offer him lift. However, he declined my offer. You will fall in love with him when you come to know why he said ‘no’ to taking lift,” the filmmaker, who is also a journalist, said on Twitter.

“Come, I’ll drop you,” Kapri says, to which the ‘sprinter’ replies he wants to continue running. On being prodded, he says he goes for work like this only, adding that he works at a McDonald’s outlet in sector 16.

However, the National Award winner insists on helping the boy. On this, the latter finally reveals the reason why he is running on the road in the middle of the night: he wants to join the army. Pradeep Mehra, who says he is from Uttarakhand’s Almora, declines one final offer to accept the lift, saying he runs at night because in morning he has to wake up early for duty and cook food.

He tells Kapri he is 19-years-old, adding that every day, he runs for 10 kilometres, from Sector 16 to Barola. When Kapri jokes that the clip will go viral, Pradeep laughs and says no one will recognise him, and even if it goes viral, he does not care because he is not doing anything wrong.

Pradeep also says no to one final offer, to have food at Kapri’s place. This, he says, is because has to go home and cook food for his elder brother, who works night shifts. The conversation ends with the boy telling the ‘Pihu’ director he cannot accept the lift as running is a part of his daily routine and he does not want to disturb it.

“All the best,” says Vinod Kapri as the clip, of 140 seconds in duration, ends. After the video, as he expected, went viral, he posted a follow-up as well.

Netizens, including public figures and politicians, have commented on the clip, praising Pradeep, or according to his school record, Pushkar Mehra, for his attitude and never-say-die spirit.