Akshaye Khanna's career has seen a remarkable resurgence, thanks to his critically acclaimed performance in Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar. Recently, a co-star from the film shared an interesting anecdote about the actor's dedication to his craft. Aditya Uppal, who played the role of Omar Haider, revealed that Akshaye asked him to slap him so hard during a scene that he would fall.
During his appearance on the Abhishek Pali Talks podcast, Aditya said, “There was a little hesitation at first. He is a senior actor. But once I am Omar Haider, he is Rehman Dakait for me. No matter how much you prepare yourself, you feel hesitation for a second. Sanjay sir hit him and then asked us to beat him up. We ended up hitting him; that shot has been edited now, but it was quite extended.”
He added, “When I hit him for the first time, obviously I was a little taken aback. I thought of doing it softly. He shouldn't get hurt for real because it was also a compact space. The van was not even moving; people were just shaking it during the shoot. Aditya sir asked me to go for it. In fact, Akshaye sir told me, ‘Tez se maaro, main gir nahi raha hu (Hit me properly, I am not falling)'. When he said that the second time, then I hit him properly and went all out.”
Aditya Uppal further shared that they were trained to operate guns before filming began. He said, "We got proper weapon training. Aditya sir is very particular about this, that whenever an actor comes on set, they should be trained properly beforehand. If you have a shot or even if you are in that scene, then you should know how to use a gun. And I was playing an officer from Pakistan, so it was even more important how I operated a gun; it had to be different from an untrained criminal.”
Dhurandhar features Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun in key roles. The film has already breached the Rs 800 crore mark at the global box office.
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