Dhurandhar 2: How Much Is Real, How Much Is Pure Fiction?

Dhurandhar and its sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, have broken box office records. But the films do something risky. They mix real people, real deaths, and real political events with pure fiction. Most viewers walk out believing everything they saw. They should not. Here is the line between fact and fantasy.

The Real People Behind the Characters

Ranveer Singh plays Jaskirat Singh Rangi, who goes undercover in Karachi as Hamza Ali Mazari. He is fictional. But almost everyone around him is not.

R. Madhavan’s spy chief Ajay Sanyal is widely seen as Ajit Doval, India’s National Security Adviser and the lead negotiator during the 1999 Kandahar hijacking. Akshaye Khanna plays Rehman Dakait, the real Lyari gang lord of Karachi. Sanjay Dutt’s police officer is based on SSP Chaudhary Aslam, the real Karachi encounter specialist. Arjun Rampal’s Major Iqbal is inspired by the militant Ilyas Kashmiri. The character “Bade Sahab,” played by Danish Iqbal, is clearly Dawood Ibrahim. Mashhoor Amrohi’s politician Nawab Shafiq looks so much like former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that many viewers thought Sharif himself had acted in the film. In the Indian portions, Salim Siddiqui plays Atif Ahmed, a thin mask over the Uttar Pradesh gangster Atiq Ahmed.

How They Died: Movie Versus Reality

The film dramatises several deaths. Reality was often messier.

Rehman Dakait really existed and really fought Dawood’s network. In 2009, his men reportedly killed and dumped a body near Dawood’s Karachi house, an act that broke Dawood’s image of being untouchable. Dakait was killed the same year in a police encounter led by Chaudhary Aslam. His wife went to court claiming the encounter was staged and the autopsy showed close-range shots.

Chaudhary Aslam himself was killed in January 2014, when the Pakistani Taliban bombed his convoy in Karachi. Ilyas Kashmiri was reportedly killed in an American drone strike in 2011, though his death was never fully confirmed. Atiq Ahmed was shot dead in April 2023 in Prayagraj, on live television, while in police custody.

Is Dawood Ibrahim Really Poisoned?

The film hints at it. The truth: in December 2023, rumours spread that Dawood had been poisoned and was critical in a Karachi hospital. A fake social media post in the name of Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister even announced his death. His aide Chhota Shakeel called it fake news and said Dawood was alive and healthy. Neither India nor Pakistan ever confirmed anything. Similar death rumours appeared in 2017 and 2020. As of today, there is no proof Dawood was poisoned or that he is dead. The film took an unverified rumour and presented it as a covert Indian victory. That is fiction, not history.

The Demonetisation Claim: The Film’s Biggest Stretch

The boldest rewrite in Dhurandhar 2 concerns the 2016 note ban. The film claims the ISI and Dawood pumped fake currency worth Rs 60,000 crore into India, that Atiq Ahmed was their UP link to buy votes before the state elections, and that Prime Minister Modi’s demonetisation was a masterstroke that destroyed this racket.

The record does not support this. RBI data showed almost all banned notes came back into the banking system. The fake currency actually detected was a tiny fraction of what the film claims. The real chargesheets against Atiq Ahmed never mentioned any fake currency racket. Even the film’s timeline is wrong: it shows a different UP police chief than the one actually in office in November 2016. Demonetisation caused real pain to ordinary Indians. Turning it into a secret intelligence triumph is creative licence, not fact.

Why Jaskirat Never Meets His Family

The ending hits harder than any action scene. Jaskirat returns to his Punjab home after nearly twenty years. His mother and sister believe he died long ago. He stands outside the gate, watching them live in peace. He does not go in. He has lost his wife and son in Pakistan, carries the guilt of his violent past, and knows that walking through that gate would drag his family into his darkness. The film leaves his choice open. It is the most honest moment in an otherwise loud film.

Is It Legal to Show the Prime Minister?

Yes, broadly. There is no Indian law that bans depicting a sitting Prime Minister or using his public speeches. Modi’s demonetisation address was a televised public broadcast. The Central Board of Film Certification cleared the film, and since the portrayal is flattering, no defamation question arises. The legal risk in such films usually comes from negative portrayals of living people, not positive ones. Critics argue the real problem is ethical, not legal: a certified film presenting government decisions as heroic fiction.

What Pakistan Says

Pakistan banned the first film and officials called it Indian propaganda, especially objecting to the portrayal of Lyari’s working-class community. The irony: Dhurandhar crossed two million illegal downloads in Pakistan, making it the most pirated film in the country’s history. Many Pakistani viewers criticised its politics while openly praising the performances.

The Takeaway

Dhurandhar 2 is gripping cinema built on a dangerous formula: real names, real deaths, and rumours stitched together until fiction feels like a leaked intelligence file. Enjoy it as a thriller. Just do not quote it as history.

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