Dhurandhar (2025): The Spy Thriller Everyone’s Talking About Before It Even Releases
There’s a particular kind of buzz that builds around a film long before its trailer drops properly, and Dhurandhar has had that buzz for over a year now. Aditya Dhar, who gave us Uri: The Surgical Strike, is back in familiar territory — national security, covert missions, the works — but this time the canvas is much bigger. Jio Studios and B62 Studios have poured close to ₹280 crore into the project, and it lands in theatres on December 5, 2025.
What’s the film actually about?
The story doesn’t shy away from real history. It draws from the shadows of two events that shook the country — the 1999 IC-814 hijacking and the 2001 attack on Parliament. Ajay Sanyal, who heads the Intelligence Bureau, hatches a risky plan to slip into Pakistan and break up a dangerous terror outfit operating there.
Here’s the twist though — the man he picks to help him isn’t a seasoned operative. He’s a 20-year-old from Punjab, sitting in jail for a crime born out of revenge. Sanyal spots something in him, though, and decides to mould this young convict into a spy who can vanish into Karachi’s underworld and survive there. It’s an unlikely mentor-protégé setup dressed up as a spy thriller, which is probably why so many people find the premise intriguing.
Who’s in it?
Ranveer Singh plays the RAW agent driving the story forward. Sanjay Dutt steps into the role of Aslam Chaudhary, and R. Madhavan takes on the tricky job of portraying real-life NSA Ajit Doval — not an easy character to play convincingly. Akshaye Khanna and Arjun Rampal fill out the rest of the main cast, while Sara Arjun plays opposite Singh as the female lead. Rakesh Bedi, Keith Sequeira, and Manav Gohil appear in supporting roles. The makers even roped in journalist Aditya Raj Kaul from TV9 Network to keep the intelligence-agency details grounded in reality rather than pure fiction.
Shooting a film across three countries
This wasn’t a quick studio shoot. Filming started in Bangkok back in July 2024, then moved to Amritsar close to the Golden Temple later that year. Early 2025 saw the unit set up at Mumbai’s Filmistan Studios and Madh Island, followed by action-heavy sequences at Mankoli Bridge and a song shot at the Golden Tobacco Factory in Vile Parle. Since shooting an actual Pakistan backdrop wasn’t possible, the crew recreated it in Thailand instead. Ladakh came next in August 2025, though the schedule got interrupted briefly when several crew members fell sick. By October 2025, Ranveer Singh had wrapped his portions and the shoot was done.
And the music?
Shashwat Sachdev handles the score, teaming up with Charanjit Ahuja for a soundtrack that mixes Punjabi folk with rap and orchestral touches. The title song is actually a fresh take on the old 1995 hit “Na Dil De Pardesi Nu,” bringing back original singers Muhammad Sadiq and Ranjit Kaur alongside newer voices like Hanumankind and Jasmine Sandlas. The first teaser dropped on Ranveer’s 40th birthday in July 2025, and it’s been fuelling conversation ever since.
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