DYK? Before Dhurandhar Blew Up The Box Office, Aditya Dhar Lost His Dream Film With Vicky Kaushal

Filmmaker Aditya Dhar may be celebrating the massive success of Dhurandhar, but the project dominating headlines today wasn’t always his primary ambition. The director had earlier set out to make a large-scale mythological action film featuring Vicky Kaushal, a project that stalled due to financial constraints.

The gangster drama Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh, has crossed Rs 437.25 crore nett at the domestic box office and is tracking toward the Rs 500 crore milestone. The film’s performance comes after a weak year for big Bollywood releases and has repositioned Ranveer as a dependable lead. For Dhar, the blockbuster success has offered reassurance following the shelving of his dream mytho-superhero venture, The Immortal Ashwatthama.

Dhar

entered Hindi cinema as director of Uri: The Surgical Strike, which collected Rs 244.14 crore nett in India. Following its reception, he developed a more ambitious vision, a film reimagining the Mahabharata character Ashwatthama with extensive VFX and world building. Backed by RSVP, the project was initially announced in January 2021.

Two posters featuring Vicky Kaushal were revealed on social media, accompanied by Dhar’s caption: “Raising the bar higher for the superhero genre not only in India but across the world, this film is a high-concept visual spectacle in the making. From the team that brought to you URI The Surgical Strike, presenting @vickykaushal09 in and as #TheImmortalAshwatthama.”

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Buzz around the film intensified at the time. Reports later indicated Vicky Kaushal had begun physical preparation for the role. However, speculation grew after production slowed, with talk of RSVP exiting the project, attempts to secure alternate financing with Jio Studios, doubts over Kaushal’s bankability for the scale required, and casting changes involving Sara Ali Khan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.

At the trailer launch of Article 370, Dhar confirmed that the film was no longer progressing. He said, “We have put that on the backburner right now. I’ll be honest, the kind of vision we all had for that, it was too big to work for Indian cinema. The kind of VFX quality we were looking at, nobody has even strived for it here.”

He added that the project would only move ahead once the industry infrastructure evolves. “For example, James Cameron thought of Avatar 27 years ago, but he waited for the market to grow. The tech to come to that level where he could actually present it. I’m, of course, not him, but if we have to achieve excellence, there can’t be any mediocrity. I can’t make it for the heck of it. Even if it takes five years of my prime time, the film has to be brilliant.”

Dhar emphasised his approach to filmmaking, stating, “Once a film is made, then it remains for posterity. It can’t be something mediocre. It can’t have that intent that I just want to make money. It should strive for excellence. I truly believe that as makers we have a huge responsibility of representing our country in the right way.”

While The Immortal Ashwatthama remains shelved, the director’s focus is now on expanding the Dhurandhar franchise. The follow-up titled Dhurandhar 2 is scheduled for March 19, 2026. Meanwhile, the first instalment continues to draw attention for its scale, 214-minute runtime, and ‘A’ certificate granted for depicting events connected to the IC-814 hijacking, the Parliament attack, and Operation Lyari. The production was shot across Thailand, Mumbai, Punjab and Ladakh between July 2024 and October 2025 and featured R. Madhavan, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun and Rakesh Bedi.

The next part is expected to arrive alongside Yash’s action film Toxic, setting up a major box office clash during the 2026 release window.