Actor Akshaye Khanna has been enjoying a fresh wave of acclaim for his chilling turn as the ruthless Rehman Dakait in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar. Now, the film’s costume designer Smriti Chauhan has revealed that the actor was deeply involved in shaping his character’s appearance and even rejected his look initially.
Smriti Chauhan on Akshaye’s look
Costume designer Smriti Chauhan spoke about working on Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller in the latest episode of Unfolding Talents (UT) on Digital Commentary channel on YouTube.
Chauhan shared that the original plan was to dress Akshaye in pathanis. However, the actor had other ideas and suggested mixing it up by having his character also sport kurta-and-jeans ensembles in the film.
“We gave him kurta-jeans as well. It was a very important input by Akshaye sir himself, that we should not forget that he is also from the streets. It made a lot of sense, because we also see his rise in the film as he progresses to join a political party later in the story. So, we had a journey where we see him distressed in linens and denims, and then cut to silk-wool pathani, which is one of the most important looks in the film,” Chauhan shared.
She recalled that there was a lot of back-and-forth with Akshaye over the look, with several trials involving a pathani adorned with rich embroidery, but the actor remained unconvinced.
There was a point when Akshaye said “I’m not sure if we take this route”, following which the costume designer explained that they can’t forget that his character comes from the street and there has to be ruggedness to his vibe.
Talking about his look in the viral scene where he vibes to Fa9la, Chauhan said everyone wearing white created a challenge for the colour scheme.
“Initially, the idea was that all dancers would be in black. But if you see the original Balochis, they wear white a lot. So Aditya sir suggested we go with white because that’s the original look…. We decided Akshaye sir should wear all black, with all the dancers in white. Rehman Dakait was awarded Sher-E-Baloch, so we had to make him stand out. We discussed which shades of colour to give him, but I was sure he had to be in black. Everyone agreed quickly, and keeping it rooted in Balochi culture, I stuck with a Balochi pathani for him.”
About Dhurandhar
Written, directed and co-produced by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar stars Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun and Rakesh Bedi. Madhavan plays Ajay Sanyal, Director of the Intelligence Bureau, in the film, while Akshaye plays Rehman Dakait, the leader of the Baloch gang.
The film tells the story of how Jaskirat Singh Rangi, aka Hamza Ali Mazari, played by Ranveer, infiltrates Rehman Dakait’s gang to relay sensitive information to India. Dhurandhar has been seeing a stellar run at the box office. The film has collected over ₹607 crore at the box office in India. The film was released on December 5.
