It is not often that a conversation about a Bollywood film centres on its casting, particularly for the supporting cast and even for characters who appear on screen for a scene or two. But with Dhurandhar: The Revenge, much like its predecessor, the focus has all been on director Aditya Dhar’s ‘peak detailing’. It began as appreciation, and then turned into a joke, but the praise for casting for characters based on real people in the film has been quite real.
As the film basks in its box office success, casting director Mukesh Chhabra sits down with Hindustan Times to break down the entire casting process, right from the first brief through the countless auditions to the breakthrough stars.
Dhurandhar casting took two years alone
Dhurandhar was initially meant to be a single film. But weeks before the film’s release, the project was split into two due to length concerns. The duology, with a near-8-hour runtime, features almost 300 characters, both major and minor. Casting them all was a challenge, Mukesh says. “In two parts, there are more than 300 people, and casting every role was difficult. It took two years of my life, and eight of my assistants worked day and night on the film, creating every look and finding every actor fit for each role. But it was so fun,” he tells us.
Mukesh Chhabra praises Aditya Dhar’s detailing
Dhurandhar’s genesis was with writer-director Aditya Dhar. Mukesh says that he and Aditya worked in tandem on the casting, despite their ‘fights’. He explains, “Aditya and I have been friends, so we can fight a bit. We can reach that common ground. There were lots of discussions where I heard him, he heard me, and we fought. But his brief was very clear, and that helped. I could visualise what he was imagining and what he wanted. There was no confusion.”
The casting director believes that the film’s casting is being praised because it has connected with the audience. “This is our reward. We worked so hard on getting these actors right, and now people are discussing who played Atiq Ahmed, and where did Babu Dakait come from? It means they have connected with the story and the characters. The work has been very detailed. Nothing has been done on the surface. There is so much detailing. Of course, half my work was done with Aditya’s brief because it was so well-detailed,” he adds.
What separates Dhurandhar’s casting
Mukesh Chhabra has been casting for two decades, having helped cast some of the biggest Indian films, from Gangs of Wasseypur to Jawan. He says what separates Dhurandhar from a run-of-the-mill Bollywood production is the free hand the makers give the casting director. “Here it was just him (Aditya Dhar) and me,” he explains, “Jab kaafi log casting mein ghuste hain, tabhi casting kharab hoti hai (When too many people are involved in casting, then it all goes wrong). In such cases, so many people give so much gyan.” Nothing like that happened on the sets of Dhurandhar, despite the commercial investment from big studios, Mukesh adds.
All about Dhurandhar
Dhurandhar films star Ranveer Singh as an Indian spy in Pakistan. In the first film, he infiltrates the gang of Rehman Dakait (Akshaye Khanna) to get access to Pakistan’s terror network. The films also star R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Asanjay Dutt, and Rakesh Bedi in pivotal roles. Dhurandhar 2, currently, in theatres, is on the verge of crossing ₹1000 crore at the box office.
