Actor Ashwin Dhar’s portrayal of gangster Arshad Pappu in director Aditya Dhar’s film Dhurandhar The Revenge has garnered praise. But lately he has been trending online because fans are drawing comparisons between one of Ashwin’s looks in the spy action thriller and actor Shah Rukh Khan’s appearance at the 2025 Met Gala. Reacting to the same, Ashwin tells us, “That was a pleasant surprise actually and some memes were saying that Aditya Dhar should have cast Shah Rukh Khan in the role. That was quite a surprise for me and comparison to Shah Rukh felt very nice, although it was about the costumes and the look and everything.”
Sharing how he came across the memes, the actor says, “My team sent it to me. In the beginning, we were just laughing and enjoying the whole thing and then it started going vira. There was not only one meme. A lot of people made this comparison between Shah Rukh Khan and me as Arshad Pappu. It was a nice thing to happen actually. Shah Rukh Khan being the actor that he is and the person he is, I like being with him in one frame even though it’s a meme.” While they have never worked together, Ashwin hopes to meet SRK one day. “I hope to see him soon. When I meet Shah Rukh, we’ll talk about this meme. It could be a good beginning, an ice breaker,” says the Dhurandhar actor.
Ashwin also opens up about co-star Akshaye Khanna, who played the role of Arshad’s onscreen nemesis, gangster Rehman Dakait. “No, I never met Akshaye. I just saw him once when I was there on the set. But I had no scene with him. Although in the film, there are only two gangs in Lyari. Rehman Dakait gang and Arshad Pappu gang. Arshad Pappu happened to kill Rehman Dakait and later Rehman Dakait’s brother Uzair killed Arshad Pappu. But Akshaye and I didn’t interact since there was no scene between us. But as far as I could see, he was quiet and sitting in his own world. And he’s like that. Everybody says this. Akshaye was there, being an actor, a quiet actor, a thinking actor. And he seemed like a very nice human being also, meeting everyone on the set. Very nice human being.”
Talking about reuniting with Ranveer Singh after Padmaavat (2018), Ashwin shares, “Ranveer is absolutely the same. A bundle of energy, he’s making jokes, meeting people. Whenever he’s on the set, there is another kind of energy. But he has definitely grown as an actor.”
