Dhurandhar has turned out to be one of the most talked about films not just because of its action and story but also because of its powerful performances. In the film Ranveer Singh lead the films but according to many viewers actors like Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal and Rakesh Bedi have won the hearts of fans.

In a recent interview with India Today, Mukesh Chhabra who’s the casting director of Dhurandhar opened up about the long and challenging casting process of the film. He shared that Dhurandhar took almost a year of his life and casting the right actors was not easy at all. While Ranveer Singh was already on board when he joined the project things became more challenging for him.

Mukesh shared once a big star is cast it becomes “almost impossible” to bring in more stars. That’s just how ” Mumbai film industry works” he said. Still every role big or small was carefully thought through.

Mukesh recalled one of the biggest challenges was convincing Akshaye Khanna to play the role of Rehman Dakait. He said even director Aditya Dhar and many others felt Akshaye Khanna would not agree, given how selective he is with his films. But Mukesh was confident and said “Akshaye paaji will do it”.

However when Mukesh called Akshaye to pitch the film things didn’t go smoothly. Akshaye apparently scolded him and said “pagal ho gaya hai kya?” He wasn’t impressed and mentioned that he doesn’t live in Mumbai anymore. Still Mukesh tried and convinced him to do the least and listen to the script once.

Akshaye finally agreed to meet Mukesh and Aditya Dhar after a lot of convincing. He drove to their office himself and sincerely listened to the narration for almost four hours, while constantly smoking. When the narration ended Akshaye simply said “f**k, its very good. Bada maza aayga”.

A few days later Akshaye called Mukesh and confirmed saying “let’s do it bro”. And thats how Rehman Dakait shined on screen.

After Dhurandhar’s success, Akshaye Khanna is now moving onto his new project. He’s all set to make his Telugu debut with Mahakali, directed by Puja Kolluru. Akshaye will be seen playing the role of Shukracharya.