The violence and action in Dhurandhar: The Revenge is deeply rooted in emotional drama and influenced by the brutal realities of the criminal world, says action director Aejaz Gulab, who was given a "free hand" by director Aditya Dhar to design these sequences.
Aejaz has an impressive filmography of 500 titles including Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), Ek Villain (2014), Saiyaara (2025), and OTT series The Family Man (2019), Rana Naidu (2023) and Guns & Gulaabs (2023), but the action-director says Dhurandhar has finally given him his due.
"People used to praise action in South films. It feels good that action in Hindi films is finally being appreciated," Aejaz, who has been working in the industry for close to four decades, told PTI in an interview.
Aejaz said he spent 135 days filming action sequences in Dhurandhar, preceded by 70 days of intensive prep.
Unlike many Bollywood projects where action is rushed due to budget or time constraints, the action-director said director Aditya gave him time to plan the action scenes.
"The action is part fiction, part reality. Aditya sir gave me a free hand to do whatever I wanted. We designed every action sequence keeping the story, character, and their angst in mind and then we would run it through him for his inputs," Aejaz, who was earlier set to team up with Aditya on his debut feature, Uri: The Surgical Strike but couldn't due to date issues, said.
For Dhurandhar, the action-director led a massive team including seven assistants, 12 stuntwomen, and nearly 300 stuntmen.
To achieve a global standard in action sequences, he collaborated with international stunt directors Yannick Ben, who has choreographed for Hollywood and Hindi films like Transporter 3 (2008), Jawan (2023), and Sea-Young Oh, best known for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), War of the Arrows (2011), and Fighter (2024).
Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the second part of Dhar's 2025 release Dhurandhar, released on March 19. The story, set in Karachi's Lyari town, follows an undercover Indian agent (Ranveer Singh) who infiltrates Karachi's high-stakes criminal and political underworld to dismantle a terror network.
The new film explores the dual identity of Ranveer’s character, tracing his transformation from Jaskirat Singh Rangi into covert operative, Hamza Ali Mazari. It features Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, and R Madhavan.
Aejaz said that the "brutality" seen on screen was a deliberate choice dictated by the script's heavy dramatic undertones.
"The script demanded that we design action sequences in a brutal way. The film is about underworld and gangsters, and these people are known for their ruthless acts," he said, justifying the criticism.
"It's not mindless action; the action is backed by emotion. As an action director, I am merely an executor of the director's vision," he added.
Taking about the brutal killing of one of the gangsters at the hands of Rehman Dakait (Akshaye Khanna), Aejaz said his team spent days prepping a more "painful" end to reflect the "angst of a father avenging the death of his young son".
"When we were planning the action scene, we thought since the scene is set in a market, what all heavy things could possibly be available, and one of the team members suggested we can use a weighing stone,” he said.
"So, it's not just about action and brutality, the emotion must complement it, for it to be executed in a certain way. The character of Rehman Dakait was known for inflicting painful death, so we had to depict that on screen." Aejaz said a few action sequences in the film were inspired by real-life footage, citing the example of recreating the chain of events of how gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed was killed. The scene is depicted in the second part and resembles the reality.
"If we did it differently, it would look fake because the audience has seen the news footage,” he said.
Aejaz, who directed Nana Patekar-starrer Ab Tak Chhappan 2 (2015), credits the production, costume and hair and make-up teams for helping him elevate the mood and feel of the action sequences.
The production team recreated the streets of Lyari in Thailand, the action-director said, adding, the action scenes were shot across Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Mumbai.
"We are talking about terrorism and killings in Pakistan so we had to show some truth. We have read all this in newspapers or seen it (on video); we are not showing false things. Aditya sir narrated to us how things actually happen, and we had seen videos as well," he said, referring to the brutal beheading sequence featuring Uzair Baloch, played by Danish Pandor.
Aejaz said they maintained safety precautions while filming action sequences.
"The blasts were real, but for action scenes involving fire or risky falls, like one of the scenes in the climax where Ranveer had to drop down from a certain height and also for the bike sequence with Yalina (Sara Arjun), we used body doubles." As "responsible citizens", Aejaz said the team self-censored the emotional intensity of the story, while designing the action sequences.
"We could have done much more terrifying things (on screen), but we did only 60 percent of it, keeping the censor board and public sensitivity in mind," he said.
Aejaz said post Dhurandhar, he will continue work on his upcoming projects like Awarapan 2 and a movie with Vikrant Massey and Maddock Films each. He also has Prime Video series, Teen Kauwe starring Bobby Deol, Sidhant Gupta, and Fatima Sana Shaikh, in the pipeline.
Dhurandhar is a "career-defining milestone", said Aejaz, who considers his father Gulab Rao and Abbas Ali Moghul - both action directors -- as his mentors.
He began his journey as a stuntman in 1989, body doubling for Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Aejaz made his debut as an action director with Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Ek Ajnabee (2005) alongside childhood friend Javed Sheikh, the duo eventually parted ways a few years later.
He added that top filmmakers like Mohit Suri, Ram Gopal Varma, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and others reached out to applaud his work in the film.
"In fact, Ramu sir offered me Sarkar 4. I'm hungry for good work, so I'll do anything that excites me irrespective of whether it's a small or a big movie," he said
