4 min readMumbaiApr 23, 2026 08:52 PM IST
Dhurandhar actors Vikramm Bhambri, Rajat Arora and Hirav Mehta recently said the film was never meant to be a two-part saga, despite hundreds of hours of footage. They also spoke about deleted scenes, its breakout success and the chances of a third film.
Dhurandhar’s raw footage is 300 hours long
During an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Vikramm Bhambri and Rajat Arora said Aditya Dhar had 300 hours of footage for Dhurandhar. Of that, 17 hours made it into the first cut, which was later trimmed to a final runtime of seven hours. Explaining why Dhurandhar was split into two parts, Rajat said, “The film was never planned to be in two parts; it was supposed to be one film. But on the edit table, Jyoti Deshpande also said that she could not cut down the film further. From 300 hours, they came to 17 and then to seven.” Vikramm added, “When we got to know about this, we also couldn’t believe it. We thought somebody was lying. Now, when we look back, we realize that maybe Aditya sir worked so minutely. He factored in every little detail. It’s a commendable job that the technical team managed to cut it down to this number of hours and maintain the flow of the project. The continuity that has been maintained is commendable.”
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Hirav Mehta chimed in, “We all shot for the film as one, so when I got to know it was cut into two parts, I hoped my part wouldn’t get cut. Of course, my scenes were difficult to cut. When part one came, I appeared in the Flipperachi walk, then I had my other scene. I kept waiting for my scene where I kill SP Aslam to come, but then that was in Dhurandhar 2. When I saw the second part, I was happy; none of my scenes were cut.”
Unfortunately, Vikramm Bhambri and Rajat Arora’s scenes didn’t make the final cut. Talking about it, Vikramm said, “Everything can never make it. Something will be cut, and every actor should know that. We had some amazing action scenes. We did our first-ever stunt scene, and drone cameras shot it. We were going to catch Arshad Pappu; that scene was shot at 2:30 am. We will never forget that scene. That scene had 4-5 takes.” Rajat added, “We had a lot of fight sequences, including solo ones, which were removed.”
On Dhurandar 3 being made
Vikramm Bhambri, Rajat Arora and Hirav Mehta further spoke about the success of Dhurandhar and how it has helped their career. Rajat said, “Now we are getting calls for primary characters only. Earlier we just took up roles that came our way. Every character who worked in the film is getting equal love and support. People have started recognizing me; neighbours and relatives want to meet us. We were not ready for all of this. We thought the film would be nice, but this grand success was not imagined.” Hirav added, “For me, it was so overwhelming, the minute that scene came where I kill Sanjay Dutt’s character, people started clapping and cheering. If you Google, India’s favorite driver, my name will appear.” Vikramm, meanwhile, said, “My VPs and exec-level people are messaging me saying they feel proud. I never thought the film would be so big.”
When asked whether another installment of Dhurandhar is possible, given the hours of footage left, Vikramm said, “I never thought after Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar 2, people would ask for a third part. Maybe that’s why our characters were not killed.” Rajat added, “If they want to make Dhurandhar 3, they will have to reshoot. They don’t have so much material left that they can make a third part. So Dhurandhar 3 is not happening. But maybe there might be something big.”
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