'Paagal ho gaya hai kya?': Mukesh Chhabra reveals how Akshaye Khanna almost missed Dhurandhar

Akshaye Khanna's performance as Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar captivated audiences, despite his initial reluctance to join the star-studded cast.

Dhurandhar is the talk of the town, and in a cast brimming with stars like Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Rampal, it is Akshaye Khanna’s chillingly restrained performance as Rehman Dakait that audiences can’t stop talking about. Quiet, coiled, and unsettling, his turn has emerged as one of the film’s most memorable elements.

Casting director Mukesh Chhabra's persistence led to a four-hour meeting, resulting in Akshaye Khanna's enthusiastic commitment to Dhurandhar.

What makes this even more remarkable is that Dhurandhar nearly didn’t have Akshaye Khanna at all.

Mukesh talks about Akshaye's casting

Casting director Mukesh Chhabra recently revealed the year-long struggle to convince him to join the project. By the time Mukesh came on board, Ranveer Singh was already locked in, a factor that often makes other actors hesitant. Undeterred, Chhabra approached every role with equal seriousness, a mindset that initially made director Aditya Dhar sceptical.

According to a report by News 18, convincing Akshaye wasn’t easy. “I hadn’t even watched Chhaava back then,” Chhabra admitted. “I called him, and the first thing he did was scold me. He said, ‘Paagal ho gaya hai kya? (Have you gone crazy?).”

How Mukesh conviced Akshaye to play Rahman Dakait

Known for being intensely private and selective, Akshaye’s reputation proved to be true. But Mukesh persisted, requesting only that he listen to the script before saying no. Akshaye agreed reluctantly and asked for specifics about the meeting location, living far from Mumbai’s usual film circuit.

The meeting turned into an unexpectedly long session. Akshaye sat with Mukesh and Aditya for nearly four hours, quietly absorbing the story while smoking intermittently.

When the narration ended, Khanna broke the silence with a reaction no one expected: “F**k, it’s very good. Bada maza aayega.(It’s very good. This is going to be so much fun)." Even after this, uncertainty lingered for two anxious days, until Mukes got the call. “He just said, ‘Let’s do it, bro.’ That was it.”