The Dhurandhar movie has been grabbing the attention lately. One of the scenes that sent chills through every Indian's bones was the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Know Aditya Dhar's thought process behind it!
Aditya Dhar's movie, Dhurandhar, in a word, left people stuck to the screens for almost two months now. The movie was released on December 5, 2025, following which Netflix got the streaming rights, and they dropped the movie on January 30, 2026, after a successful theatrical run. While the film's censored version left fans disappointed, there's no holding back for the audience to rewatch the movie again and again.
Amid this, people have been talking about the 26/11 scene that was shown in the movie, followed by a red screen that featured the real audio recording from the attack that happened back on November 26, 2008. Let's know what Aditya Dhar's thought process was behind essaying 'Hamza' the spy in a frozen state, even though he was present in front of 'Rehman Dakait' and 'Major Iqbal' and their team members.
Spoilers Ahead!
'Hamza Ali Mazari's work was to gather information and find a terrorist network in Lyari, and to do the same, he had to enter 'Rehman Dakait's gang. The movie then introduced 'Major Iqbal', played by Arjun Rampal, and in a scene, the 26/11 attack was essayed, wherein the ISI officer and Pakistani gangster were present with their team, celebrating. It was 'Hamza' who was pretending to be one of them, and he was left visibly shaken and sweating, witnessing the horror that was taking place in Mumbai.
It was Naveen Kaushik, 'Donga' in the movie, who talked about the entire scene in an interview on the Scene Kya Hai podcast. He shared that the original audio clip was 40-45 minutes long, and only 2-3 minutes could be heard in the movie. He revealed that when Aditya Dhar was briefing them and played the clip, there was a silence amongst the cast, and they couldn't even interact for like 15 minutes, after which they realised, how heavy this sequence in the movie was going to be.
Naveen, in the same interview, revealed that he asked Aditya Dhar a question which all the viewers could relate to. The question was whether 'Hamza' wouldn't be caught, given that he was a spy, and could be seen sweating and frozen, seeing the attack in India, even being in front of all the Pakistanis and the gangster and ISI officer who orchestrated this.
Aditya Dhar revealed that he wanted 'Hamza's character to be more active in his brain, and all the chatter of celebration around him should look like a voice in his head, which led him not to care about the fact, even if he's alone, but to kill all the people in that room. Aditya Dhar asked the cast to send the energy to 'Hamza', given the fact that before the 26/11, he was only gathering information, and after this, he would start working on it, making it a turning point in his role.
To mention, this scene is one of the heaviest scenes in the movie, and truly sent chills down the nerves, when the red screens featured the original voice clips from the 26/11 attack. The survivors reacted to the scene and revealed how those memories stirred after all these years, while thanking Aditya Dhar for such a movie.
Watch the video here.
What do you think of the scene from Dhurandhar?
Also Read: Dhurandhar, 'Hamza' Or 'Uzair Baloch', Who Is Likely Successor Of 'Rehman Dakait'? Aditya Dhar Hints