Why Was Dhurandhar Director Aditya Dhar’s The Immortal Ashwatthama Shelved In The First Place?

Aditya

Dhar’s Dhurandhar has sent the box office buzzing. Starring Ranveer Singh in the lead role, along with an ensemble cast boasting Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Rakesh Bedi, Dhurandhar is all set to becoming Singh’s highest grosser of his career till date. The film has already crossed Rs 200 crore in the domestic box office. Aditya, who started his career as a director with Uri, was supposed to make a film on the Mahabharata character Ashwatthama with Vicky Kaushal. However, the film never got made. Instead, after many delays, Dhar is back with a bang with Dhurandhar. But why did Aditya Dhar’s The Immortal Ashwatthama get shelved in the first place?

Uri And Then The Immortal Ashwatthama

When Aditya Dhar announced The Immortal Ashwatthama after the massive success of Uri: The Surgical Strike, expectations were sky high. The film was pitched as a grand mythological sci-fi epic blending ancient Indian folk-lore with a futuristic world building – something similar to Kalki 2898 AD. The film was supposed to star Vicky Kaushal, and later was rumoured to have included Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Sara Ali Khan. The project had the potential to become one of the most ambitious films ever made in India. Yet, despite its promising premise, the film was shelved before it even went into full production.Also Read: Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar, Shahid Kapoor's Kabir Singh, Ranbir Kapoor's Animal ALL Highest Grossers: Does Hypermasculinity In Bollywood Really Sell?

Why Was The Immortal Ashwatthama Shelved?

The primary reason behind the collapse of The Immortal Ashwatthama was its massive and continuously escalating budget. Designed as a VFX-heavy spectacle with global-scale visuals, the film required cutting-edge technology, extensive pre-visualisation, and international teams. Producers quickly realised the costs would soar far beyond initial estimates, especially with comparisons being drawn to Hollywood-level productions. For a market still recovering from the pandemic and with unpredictable box office patterns, the financial risk became too large to justify. This much was admitted by Dhar during a media interaction.Also Read: Why Is Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar BANNED In GCC - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia And The UAE? Using James Cameron as an example, Dhar noted that even the Hollywood filmmaker waited for the market and technology to evolve before bringing his vision to life. “I’m obviously not him, but if we want to achieve excellence, there can be no mediocrity. I can’t make this film just for the sake of it. Even if it takes five years of my prime, it has to be brilliant.”Ultimately, The Immortal Ashwatthama was shelved not because of a weak concept but because it became too big, too expensive, and too unpredictable. Yet the excitement around The Immortal Ashwatthama never truly faded.