Dhurandhar has been running successfully in theatres since its release on December 5. Starring Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, and Sara Arjun, the film is set in Lyari - one of the most densely populated localities of Karachi, Pakistan - during the period between 1999 and 2009.
The film portrays Lyari in Sindh as a hotspot of terrorism, gang violence, police crackdowns, drug trade, and an escalating arms race. The intense narrative has kept audiences hooked.
What is truly fascinating is the sheer scale and detailing that went into recreating Lyari - not in India, but in Thailand's Bangkok, which is 6000 km away from Karachi.
Interestingly, the entire Lyari neighborhood seen in the film was constructed on a sprawling six-acre set in Bangkok.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Dhurandhar's production designer Saini S Johray opened up about the meticulous planning and execution behind building one of the film's most ambitious sets.
How Much Time Did It Take To Design Lyari?
It took three months to design the set in Thailand. "It took me almost three months to design this film in terms of breakdown. March to May we spent designing, June was for recce, and July we started shooting. I had 15 designers in the beginning on my team for the project. We would work 12 hours a day because it's a very vast film," Saini said.
Calling Dhurandhar one of the most demanding projects of his career, he added, "I think in my career, it's one of those films that has the maximum number of locations. How I calculate films as a production designer is that, let's say we shoot for 60 days and there are 100 locations in that film - which means, on average, we will shoot at two locations per day. But here, it was four locations a day! There was a lot of designing and detailed work to do, as Aditya was very clear that we can't do anything that looks fake."
Deep Research Before Building Lyari
In the same interview, Saini also spoke at length about the extensive research that went into authentically recreating Lyari.
"How the characters looked, what their houses were, the entire history and geography - right down to the detailing of the kind of gun they used," he explained.
"To give you a local context, a don living in Dharavi would be different from one living in Mira Road," said Saini.
He added that access to visual references was limited and said, "The internet is also limited; you can't see how someone's house would look from the inside. So we relied on newspaper cuttings, old videos, and news to understand the geography of the particular area of Pakistan. Then, finally, we created a six-acre set in Thailand. We also built a massive set on Madh Island."
Why Thailand And Not Mumbai?
When asked why the makers chose Thailand to build the Lyari set, Saini cited logistical and weather challenges.
"It was impossible to shoot the scenes in Mumbai with the stars we have. We wanted a huge six-acre land and a studio wasn't possible," he said.
Saini further added, "The dates we had were in July, which means you can't put up a set in Mumbai because of the monsoons."
After conducting recces across multiple countries, Thailand emerged as the ideal location. He said, "We had done recces in different countries, but we finally arrived in Thailand. It was the perfect landscape for us to build a larger-than-life set."
Talking about Dhurandhar's box office collection, the film earned approximately Rs 380 crore in 11 days.
Also Read: Dhurandhar Success Makes Pakistan Announce Own Movie On Lyari With A Comment On 'Indian Propaganda'