How Akshay Khanna became Rehman Dacoit: Mukesh Chhabra on brilliant casting
The casting of Akshaye Khanna as the dacoit Rahman in Dhurandhar was not planned, it was a spontaneous instinct. Casting director Mukesh Chhabra talks about the surprise call, the four-hour story and the creative leaps that helped shape the biggest Indian film of the year.
When? stalwart As the box office records and cultural memory began to be rewritten in one fell swoop, one name kept coming up in conversations beyond the reviews and collections: Akshaye Khanna. Not only for what he did on screen as Rahman Dacoit, but also for the wonder of his casting. It felt unexpected, risky, and strangely inevitable – a choice that only makes sense in hindsight. That instinct, that leap, largely belongs to Mukesh Chhabra, the genius mind behind casting Khanna stalwart,
When asked about the response, Chhabra laughs and says, “I get a message every second.” stalwart“And a call every 30 seconds, Everyone is talking about casting,” he says while sitting for an interview with IndiaToday,in,
The chatter is not accidental. stalwart The scale, detail, and casting precision demanded go far beyond assembling recognizable faces. And Chhabra knew it from the moment he heard the story. “The first time I heard the script, I thought ‘Hey, Mukesh, you’re dead. Another year of your life is gone.’ He remembers. He recalls, “I usually try to complete a project in three months. But this was going to be too extensive.”
When Chhabra joined the film, Ranveer Singh was already on board. That, in itself, complicated things.
He states clearly, “It is practically impossible to get more stars when you already have one.” He further added, “This is how the Mumbai film industry works.”
As yet stalwart There was no interest in playing by familiar rules.
Chhabra went back to basics: building what he calls a ‘casting map’. Not only for the lead roles, but also for the collaborators, assistants, interns, and hundreds of characters present in the world of the film.
“It didn’t matter be it danish pandorRakesh Bedi, Akshaye Khanna or R Madhavan. Even the smallest thought of casting was done carefully,” he says.
Attention to detail extended to geography, language and design. The film sought to create an entirely different world – Pakistan – with actors who were able to live in areas such as Balochistan and Karachi.
“It takes a lot of effort to keep the language, the look, the authenticity in mind,” says Chhabra. “As a casting director, this was one of those films where you look at it as a challenge and show what you are capable of doing.”
But the biggest gamble, and the most decisive, was Akshaye Khanna.
Initially, the team was thinking in a completely different direction. Someone from the OTT sector. A popular face. “And then I said to Aditya, let’s go big,” says Chhabra.
When he put forward the names he had in mind, Aditya Dhar felt that he had lost it. “He told me I was going crazy,” laughs Chhabra. “I said, Akshay scurvy Will do it. And then we all jumped on it.”
What happened next was not a long chase, but a surprisingly honest conversation.
“To be honest, I didn’t see it.” shade Then,” admits Chhabra. “But I called him. let them scold me first (he scolded me first), He said, ‘Have you gone mad?’ I told him to listen to me at least once,” he says.
Akshay agreed to meet on his own terms.
“I asked him to come to the office,” recalls Chhabra. He said, ‘I don’t even live here. tell me where to come (I don’t even live here. Tell me where you want to meet me?)”
He himself drove to Aditya Dhar’s office. No party. No hassle.
“He came and sat for four hours,” Chhabra remembers, “listening quietly.” He kept smoking. When we finished, he said, ‘F**k, this is so good’. Then he said, ‘Awesome, man.’ it will be a lot of fun,
However, there was some hesitation over the next few days. Akshay is famously selectiveBut once he revisited the script, the decision came immediately. Chhabra recalls: “He called me and said, ‘Come on brother, let’s do this.'”
that was it.
“Now when I see her getting so angry — people posting about it, talking about it — it feels surreal,” he says. “Now we talk every morning. We have become a family. Arjun, Maddy BrotherSanjay Baba — We were in constant touch. Everyone is very happy with the response,” he says.
That feeling of collective joy pervades the entire cast.
Chhabra remembered veteran actor Rakesh Bedi, who played the role of Jamil Jamal, visiting the office recently and looking quite emotional. “He said, ‘I’ve been working for 49 years, but I’ve never felt like a star like I do now.’ He had tears in his eyes,” says Chhabra.
For a casting director, these moments matter as much as the headlines.
“I like to surprise people,” he says of his casting philosophy. He adds, “I keep thinking: How do I surprise them? How do I turn these roles around?”
It’s a method that has defined the careers of television actors like the late Sushant Singh Rajput, from casting kai po che (2013) The continuing blurring of the line between “big” and “small” names. “I don’t think so,” he says, “I just look at actors. A good actor is a good actor.”
He believes this clarity comes from working with directors who know what they want – and Aditya Dhar is one of them. Chhabra says, “Aditya is present in every casting discussion, no big team, no noise. This is his point of view. Their words matter. He comes with clarity.”
Around 400 actors were selected stalwartYet the process never felt fragmented: “When the script is strong, the casting falls into place,” Chhabra says: “So simple,”
For a profession that hardly gets its due in India, stalwart has become something else entirely For him.
He pauses, then adds: “Of course, Everyone is talking because the movie playedWhen you are making a film you don’t know anything, You just put your heart into it,”
In Dhurandhar’s case, and in Mukesh Chhabra’s case, that heart, those choices that he and the team made decisively, have not stopped giving. And Hindi cinema hasn’t stopped talking about it since.
