By Admin 
‘Dhurandhar’ has created a lot of buzz. In this film starring stars like Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Rampal, the audience liked Akshay Khanna’s strong and calm acting as ‘Rahman Dacoit’. Quiet, serious and unsettling, his performance has become one of the most memorable aspects of the film. But do you know that initially Akshay Khanna was not ready to do this role. After all, how could they agree? Let us know here.
‘Aditya felt that I was being overly ambitious’
According to a News 18 report, casting director Mukesh Chhabra recently revealed the difficult journey of assembling the cast of Dhurandhar and said that convincing Akshay Khanna to join the project was a year-long battle of patience and persuasion. By the time Chhabra joined this project, Ranveer Singh had already been finalized. In Bollywood, this often means that other big actors hesitate because they fear being left behind, but Chhabra ignored this unspoken tradition of hierarchy.
He approached the stars with equal seriousness for every role, be it R. Be it Madhavan’s character or small supporting characters, his thinking initially made director Aditya Dhar uncomfortable. When Chhabra suggested Akshaye Khanna’s name for the role of Rehman dacoit, the reaction was a bit doubtful. Chhabra recalled, “Aditya felt that I was being too ambitious, but I was confident that Akshay paaji was perfect for this character.”
How did Mukesh Chhabra convince Akshaye Khanna?
Talking to Akshay Khanna on the phone was just the beginning, and that too not a good beginning. Chhabra admitted, “I hadn’t even seen ‘Chhaava’ at that time. I called him, and the first thing he did was scold me. He said, ‘Have you gone crazy?'” Khanna’s reputation as extremely private and selective proved to be true. But Chhabra remained firm, and he had only one request – that the actor listen to the script before refusing. Then Akshaye Khanna reluctantly agreed to meet, although he had some hesitation in this too. Being away from the famous film industry of Mumbai, he clearly told Chhabra to clear the place of meeting.
A four-hour meeting changed everything
The meeting of Mukesh Chhabra and Akshay Khanna lasted for a long time. Akshaye sat quietly with Khanna, Mukesh Chhabra and Aditya Dhar for about four hours and listened to the script. “He rarely interrupted. He kept smoking and listening,” Chhabra said. When the narration of the script ended, Akshaye Khanna gave a reaction which no one had expected. He said, “Wow, this is great, it’s going to be fun.” Two anxious days passed, then Chhabra’s phone rang. Mukesh said, “He just called and said, ‘Let’s do it, brother, that’s all.’