The makers of Dhurandhar have kept the viewers guessing for a long time, from its title, shooting locations to the story. On Tuesday, they dropped the trailer of the highly anticipated film, based on "incredible true events".
Fronted by Ranveer Singh and directed by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar introduced its lead star cast in the trailer yesterday, and social media immediately got to work to uncover the real-life inspirations behind these reel characters.
And this is what the Internet has found out about who is playing who in Dhurandhar.
Ranveer Singh - Wrath Of God
While the name of Ranveer Singh's character wasn't revealed in the 4-minute trailer of Dhurandhar, he appears to be playing the role of an undercover agent or an Indian Army soldier in Pakistan. Going by his look for the character, there's speculation that Ranveer Singh is playing Ashok Chakra awardee Major Mohit Sharma.
Major Mohit Sharma infiltrated the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group under the alias 'Iftikhar Bhat' and was killed in action after eliminating the terrorists in a counter-insurgency operation in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir.
Arjun Rampal As Major Iqbal - Angel Of Death
The trailer of Dhurandhar opens with Arjun Rampal's Major Iqbal torturing an Indian soldier whose body is pierced with fishhooks, as Iqbal recalls being inspired by Former Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's infamous call to "bleed India with a thousand cuts".
This chilling scene reminds one of the torture endured by Major Saurabh Kalia and other Indian Army soldiers at the hands of the Pakistani Army when they were taken prisoner during the Kargil War in 1999.
The character Major Iqbal seems to be based on Ilyas Kashmiri, who was once dubbed the new Osama bin Laden. He was one of the most wanted men for Indian security agencies for his role in a number of terror strikes in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Cold, calculative, and self-assured is what Arjun Rampal's Major Iqbal appears to be. He is someone who commands respect and instills fear in Pakistan.
Ilyas Kashmiri's name began circulating in the intelligence circuit back in 1994 when he, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Al Qaeda operative Omar Sheikh, who was involved in the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl, kidnapped four foreign tourists and demanded the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed.
It was Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley who revealed Ilyas Kashmiri's involvement in the 26/11 attacks after he recognised his voice from some samples.
Ilyas Kashmiri was a student at Islamabad's Allama Iqbal Open University when he left his studies for terror activities to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, during which he lost an eye and a finger. In 2011, reports stated that he had died in a US drone attack in Pakistan.
R Madhavan As Ajay Sanyal, Indian Intelligence - Charioteer Of Karma
In Dhurandhar, R Madhavan plays Ajay Sanyal, a top officer of the Indian Intelligence Agency, better known as Research And Analysis Wing (R&AW).
According to the trailer, Ajay Sanyal is portrayed as a chainsmoking seasoned intelligence officer who knows about hitting Pakistan where it hurts the most: its terror camps.
"We must infiltrate the very core of terrorism in Pakistan taaki woh Bharat ke khilaaf agar neend mein bhi sochein na toh unhe khwaab mein bhi hum baithe nazar aane chahiye," he says, looking straight into the camera, breaking the fourth wall.
When the makers dropped the first-look video of Dhurandhar on Ranveer Singh's birthday this July, the one character the Internet was sure about was R Madhavan's.
A man in intelligence with a balding head, spectacles, and a moustache. And those "thin lips". It didn't take social media users to put two and two together. R Madhavan may be playing a character called Ajay Sanyal but everyone was sure he was actually essaying a part inspired by Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor and former Intelligence Bureau (IB) director.
Ajit Doval is known for playing a key role in several counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts, including anti-insurgency operations in Punjab and Mizoram, negotiating the release of hostages in the 1999 IC-814 hijacking (a glimpse of which is seen in the Dhurandhar trailer too), and covert missions such as Operation Black Thunder in 1988.
More recently, he was involved in the safe return of Indian nurses trapped in Iraq in 2014, the 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir after the Uri attack, and the 2019 Balakot airstrike.
This is not the first time that Ajit Doval has featured in an Aditya Dhar film. The director cast Paresh Rawal to play a similar character in his multiple National Award-winning superhit Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019).
Akshaye Khanna As Rehman Dakait - Apex Predator
Much like Major Iqbal, Rehman Dakait is also a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the political landscape of Pakistan, as depicted in the Dhurandhar trailer. He is suave, ruthless, and, in his own words, kills like a kasai - a butcher.
According to Pakistani media, Rehman Dakait -- born Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch -- was one of Karachi's most notorious criminals.
Son of a drug smuggler, Rehman Dakait rose from the streets of Karachi as a gangster and tried to enter the upper echelons of the Pakistani political sphere to gain legitimacy. He is also infamous for having allegedly killed his own mother Khadija Bibi when he was just a teenager.
In 2008, he founded the People's Aman Committee, a group that aimed to maintain order in Karachi's Lyari locality but was accused of running criminal rackets and armed gangs under political patronage, particularly by the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP).
In August 2009, Rehman Dakait was killed in a police encounter led by Superintendent of Police Chaudhary Aslam Khan in Karachi's Steel Town area. Pakistani media reports say that the gangster's death may not have been an extra-judicial killing. It is said that the top leaders of the PPP ordered the hit on Rehman Dakait.
Sanjay Dutt As SP Chaudhary Aslam - The Jinn
Sanjay Dutt brings his quintessential swag to the character of the gun-toting, smoking SP Chaudhary Aslam, based on Chaudhry Aslam, one of Pakistan's top cops and encounter specialists.
The real cop was known for leading operations against gangs in Lyari, including arrests and killings of underworld dons like Rehman Dakait and Arshad Pappu.
He also served as head of the Lyari Task Force and later the Investigation Wing in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Chaudhry Aslam's unit was responsible for arresting several militants planning attacks in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan. A controversial figure in Pakistan law enforcement, Chaudhry Aslam Khan was also sent to prison on charges of fake encounters, but was acquitted later.
He survived several attempts on his life but was assassinated in a bomb blast in January 2014 in a hit claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) due to his actions against militants.
Dhurandhar Casting
In a recent interview with Filmfare, Dhurandhar casting director Mukesh Chhabra spoke about casting Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, and R Madhavan for the film.
"I still remember thinking that Sanjay sir should play this role, Akshaye sir and Madhavan sir these roles. This is how I thought about Sanjay sir. I saw him at an event and he had a beard at the time. I clicked his photo from afar and sent it to Aditya Dhar, asking 'What do you think of Sanju sir for this?'
"When we told Madhavan sir that he had to do something like this, he laughed first. Then I said, 'It's a surprise, you have a look, and then I'll speak to Aditya'. He said, 'Let's see, let's do it'," Mukesh Chabbra said.
Also starring Sara Arjun, Dhurandhar will hit the screens on December 5.