'Akshaye Khanna Isn't Someone Who Ghosts You': Mukesh Chhabra On Casting Him In Dhurandhar

Aditya Dhar’s action drama, Dhurandhar, has been breaking one box office record after another, and every single performance has been truly appreciated. One actor who has made the most headlines is Akshaye Khanna, who plays Rehman Dakait. He has performed phenomenally well, and social media is abuzz with good things to say about him, including the viral FA9LA dance.Casting director Mukesh Chhabra recently spoke to SCREEN and discussed how Akshaye’s casting happened.

Talking about him, Mukesh said, “He is baap! Now he has literally taken over the internet. The social media belongs to Akshaye Khanna since the time the film has released. Wherever you go, be it Facebook, Instagram, or X, all you see is him on your timeline. People are only talking

about his entry and the way he has performed overall. And he had no idea it would become so big because he is just too focused on his work.”

On the casting process, Chhabra further added, “We jotted down lots of names for his role and then we went about shortlisting, where we zeroed in on his name. Then he came for the narration, and he came alone, which was the beautiful part. And after it ended, he looked at me, and I looked at him, and he said, ‘Loved it, maza aa gaya yaar’ (I loved it, I really enjoyed it, man).”

He says, “Aaj main padh leta hoon raat mein jaakar phir” (I’ll read it tonight and get back to you). And he is not one of those guys who says ‘aaj padh leta hoon’ (I’ll read it today) and then ghosts you. He is a man of his word. That’s the best part about him—that he takes every single decision on his own.” Another casting choice that has been drawing significant attention is Rakesh Bedi, who plays the politician Jameel Jamali in the film.

Rakesh Bedi has also been receiving a lot of love for his role in the film. On how he cast him, Chhabra said, “Almost every producer, director, or actor I know is taking his number from me and congratulating him. Some are even planning to cast him, and I’m so happy for him. I think he completely reinvented himself in this film, especially in the way he performed. He actually added his own humor to the character; it was never in the script.”

He said, “I think he spoke to Aditya and said, ‘I want to add another layer to this.’ He’s a great actor, and when actors improvise, they always come up with new ideas. And Aditya is extremely collaborative. There’s no barrier with him; you can communicate freely and really speak your heart out.”

Mukesh also revealed what the first conversation went like and added, “When I called Rakesh ji, I just told him, ‘It’s a very interesting character, you haven’t done anything like this, please do it.’ And he immediately responded, ‘Beta, main trust karta hoon tujhe, let’s do it’ (Son, I trust you, let’s do it).”

Dhurandhar released on December 5, and the movie has had a solid second week, with numbers going up at a rather exponential rate.