Dhurandhar was the biggest blockbuster of 2025, and following in its footsteps, Dhurandhar The Revenge is emerging as one of the biggest films of 2026. The reason behind the success includes filmmaker Aditya Dhar’s ‘peak detailing’, Ranveer Singh’s impeccable performance and a star cast which transformed into the ultimate dream team. Sara Arjun and Ranveer’s onscreen chemistry especially won hearts. But did you know over thousand girls auditioned for the role before Sara came on-board as Yalina Jamali? During a recent interview on The Right Angle with Sonal Kalra, casting director Mukesh Chhabra revealed the story of casting Sara.
Talking about casting Yalina, Jameel Jamali’s daughter and Hamza’s wife, Mukesh Chhabra shared, “Humara Initially bohot saara discussion iss film mein chala tha, ki humko jis jagah ki woh ladki dikhani hai, koi aisa fresh approach lena bohot zaroori hai. Initially, we thought of so many big, established actors. Aditya got so many messages from different people. I got messages asking, ‘Why not me?’ Because, of course, he’s Ranveer. Hum log bohot clear the, ki poori duniya mein woh fresh ladki lagni chahiye ki jiska koi background naa ho, so that aisa lage ki uss duniya mein he is going, woh uss duniya mein jaa raha hai.”
He remembered, “We auditioned so many people. I think more than a thousand girls auditioned. And mere pe bohot brief clear tha, completely fresh, a new approach, and of course, language. Lagna chahiye ki wahan ki hai, kyunki usse yeh feel hota hai ki uss mulk mein aap jaa rahe ho. That’s the whole idea. If you’ve seen part 2, the scene where she says, ‘Are you a Hindustani agent?’ That was my audition script. I remember we did that scene with a minimum of 50 people after shortlisting. Then we shortlisted 30, came down to 20, then 10, then 5, then 3, and then 1.”
Talking about Sara Arjun’s audition, Mukesh shared, “Jab usne woh scene kiya, immediately I sent it to Aditya on WhatsApp. He said, ‘Kaun hai yeh?’ I said she’s the new girl, she’s just done a few ad films as a child actor, and a few films as a child actor. Initially, we were thinking, ‘Will she look short?’ That is a calculation in casting. But then we thought kahani ke saath woh correct lagega that he’s going there and he’s trying to woo that girl. That’s the whole point. She gave a kick-ass audition, I’m going to release that audition in the next one week and you’ll know why we took that girl.”
Well, we can’t wait to watch Sara’s audition for Dhurandhar!
