:quality(85)/tpg/sources/875632d6-fd07-4f22-9421-a39b2702205f.jpeg "Danish Iqbal Transforms Into Dawood Ibrahim In Dhurandhar")
The actor endured hours of prosthetic make-up and secrecy to painting the shadowy underworld determine in Aditya Dhar’s crime saga, stunning each audiences and himself.
For months, hypothesis swirled across the mysterious determine of Bade Sahab in Aditya Dhar’s crime saga, Dhurandhar and its sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Audiences had been hooked, desperate to unmask the shadowy pressure orchestrating crime and chaos from behind the scenes. On March 21, 2026, the curtain lastly lifted: Bade Sahab was none aside from the infamous underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, portrayed by the versatile Danish Iqbal.
The reveal got here as a shock not solely to followers however, astonishingly, to Iqbal himself. According to Devdiscourse, the actor was initially unaware that his character, identified solely as Bade Sahab throughout filming, was in truth Dawood Ibrahim. “I got my Eidi a little early. I knew that I was playing Dawood Ibrahim in this film, but I didn’t know that Dawood Ibrahim is ‘Bade Sahab’ to be very honest. So I kept wondering who could be Bade Sahab. But when only a few weeks were left before the film’s release, somewhere I started to feel that maybe Dawood Ibrahim’s character itself could be Bade Sahab,” Iqbal advised PTI.
This twist was a masterstroke by director Aditya Dhar and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, who intentionally stored the true id of Bade Sahab below wraps. Their method ensured that each position, whatever the actor’s fame, was given equal weight within the storyline, permitting the thriller to construct organically. As Devdiscourse highlighted, the setting they created on set allowed actors to thrive, focusing consideration on character depth reasonably than celeb attract.
In the unique Dhurandhar movie, Bade Sahab was an unseen however omnipresent pressure—pulling the strings of Lyari’s crime lords, ISI handlers, senior law enforcement officials, and political fixers, all whereas remaining fully off-screen. The sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, lastly unmasked him as Dawood Ibrahim, the underworld don held answerable for the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts and quite a few different terror incidents in India. This revelation shifted the viewers’s curiosity away from the actor’s id and towards the character’s mannerisms and look. “The way everything was created, the world of that character when people saw it, they forgot about which actor it was. They started focusing on the character itself. And that is the beauty that when a character is properly brought to life on screen, people appreciate the art more rather than glorifying the personality of the actor. They start liking the character. The appreciation I received for my acting talent became more important,” Iqbal shared with PTI.
But bringing Dawood Ibrahim to life on display screen was no simple feat. Iqbal’s bodily transformation was as grueling because it was spectacular. As reported by Sat, he needed to endure eight to 10 hours of prosthetic make-up every day on set. “On the first day, I thought it would be done in two or three hours, no big deal. But it took me five hours to complete it. And eventually, it took 8-9 hours. Sometimes 10 hours,” Iqbal defined. The prosthetic, designed to age him and mirror the character’s sickness and challenges, was so convincing that, as Iqbal put it, “It doesn’t look like makeup. It looks like a person. And that’s why it’s so difficult to do it — portraying that age, portraying his illness, portraying his challenges on screen.”
The ordeal didn’t finish when the cameras stopped rolling. Removing the prosthetic was one other marathon, taking as much as three or 4 hours each day. “And then removing…prosthetic used to take three to four hours,” Iqbal advised Sat. Despite the bodily toll, Iqbal discovered the expertise deeply rewarding. “I was…a little bit worried (thinking), how will it come out. But yes, I thoroughly enjoyed…the process,” he mirrored.
Interestingly, Iqbal intentionally averted watching or drawing inspiration from earlier portrayals of Dawood Ibrahim. Over the years, the underworld don has develop into some of the depicted figures in Hindi cinema, showing each straight and thru impressed characters. Vijay Maurya performed him by title in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, Emraan Hashmi took on the position in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, and the late Rishi Kapoor portrayed him in Nikkhil Advani’s D-Day. Iqbal, nonetheless, needed to carve his personal path. “I was worried that I might get trapped in that circle, that I have to portray the character’s image. But then I forgot that this is the name of a character who has a reference in front of us, and all the actors who have portrayed him because then I wouldn’t have been able to play this role. I was thinking that these are the given circumstances and these are the dialogues. These are his co-actors with whom he is talking and these are his problems. And what is his demand? What does he want? Focusing on all these things, I made the character. I didn’t imitate anyone,” he advised PTI.
For Iqbal, who has constructed a strong popularity in acclaimed tasks similar to Maharani, Aranyak, The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, Bhakshak, and Haq, this position was a definite problem. Unlike the star-studded solid of the two-part saga—which incorporates Ranveer Singh, Ashaye Khanna, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, and Sanjay—Iqbal will not be a family title, however his nuanced method to the character has resonated with each critics and viewers. The appreciation he’s acquired for his appearing, reasonably than his celeb, marks a major second in his profession.
The sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, doesn’t simply give attention to the unmasking of Bade Sahab. It additionally options Ranveer Singh as Jaskirat Singh Rangi, a younger man who transforms into covert operative Hamza Ali Mazari, working deep inside Pakistan. The narrative traces Mazari’s rise within the Karachi underworld whereas unraveling the origins of the person behind the quilt—Bade Sahab, now revealed as Dawood Ibrahim. This layered storytelling, with its intricate internet of crime, politics, and id, has stored audiences glued to their seats.
Director Aditya Dhar’s imaginative and prescient, mixed with Mukesh Chhabra’s meticulous casting, has delivered a movie that prioritizes character over stardom. By protecting the id of Bade Sahab a carefully guarded secret, they not solely stoked public curiosity but additionally gave Iqbal the house to create a model of Dawood Ibrahim that feels each contemporary and genuine. The result’s a portrayal that’s much less about mythologizing the person and extra about exploring his affect—an unseen hand shaping the destinies of these round him.
As the credit roll on Dhurandhar: The Revenge, one factor is obvious: Danish Iqbal’s dedication—enduring hours of make-up, embracing uncertainty, and specializing in the humanity behind the infamy—has paid off. Audiences could have come for the thriller, however they stayed for the efficiency.
