By Krishna Dua 
Dhurandhar Soars: Akshaye Khanna Steals Show With Dark Turn
Mumbai’s glittering skyline twinkled with anticipation on December 9, 2025, as the world premiere of Dhurandhar lit up the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, transforming the Jio World Convention into a cauldron of cinematic suspense. The red carpet, a velvet river flanked by 500 screaming fans and a phalanx of paparazzi, became Akshaye Khanna’s personal runway, the 50-year-old actor striding in like a shadow given form. His portrayal of Arjun Malhotra—a ruthless media baron whose empire of lies unravels into a vortex of vengeance—didn’t just steal the show; it devoured it whole, leaving co-stars and critics in awestruck silence. Director Reema Sengupta, her eyes gleaming with vindication, summed it up backstage: “Akshaye isn’t playing dark; he is the darkness—layered, lethal, luminous.” As the 2-hour-15-minute thriller rolled credits at 11:45 p.m., the 1,200-strong audience erupted in a five-minute ovation, whispers of “Oscars for Akshaye” rippling through Bollywood’s elite. With Dhurandhar’s teaser trailer already clocking 65 million views on YouTube since its November 15 drop, the film’s December 10 pan-India release—distributed by Excel Entertainment—promises to eclipse Khanna’s past peaks, blending psychological grit with genre-bending twists in a narrative that probes the perils of power in modern India.
The premiere, a lavish affair curated by designer Manish Malhotra, drew A-listers like Ranbir Kapoor, who cornered Khanna for a selfie, gushing, “Bhai, your eyes are weapons—I’ve never seen intensity like that.” Alia Bhatt, in a shimmering Sabyasachi, lauded the film’s feminist fire, while Pankaj Tripathi, Khanna’s on-screen foil, joked, “Akshaye’s villainy made me question my own goodness.” Yet, it was Khanna’s quiet command—eschewing the usual promo circus for cryptic quotes—that amplified the aura. In a rare post-screening chat with Filmfare, he demurred: “Arjun Malhotra isn’t a role; he’s a reckoning—a man who builds towers on sand, only to watch them swallow him.” As after-parties spilled into Bandra’s nightclubs, the buzz solidified: Dhurandhar isn’t mere entertainment; it’s Akshaye’s audacious ascent into Bollywood’s pantheon of anti-heroes.
Khanna’s Abyss: Embodying the Empire’s Eclipse
Akshaye Khanna’s metamorphosis into Arjun Malhotra is a tour de force of transformation, a deliberate descent into the psyche of a man whose charm conceals a chasm. At 50, Khanna has long been Bollywood’s enigmatic everyman—versatile in vehicles from the patriotic punch of Border (1997) to the quirky quips of Dishoom (2016)—but Dhurandhar unleashes his latent leviathan. Malhotra, a media tycoon whose 24/7 news empire peddles propaganda for political patrons, starts as a silver-tongued savant but spirals into a paranoid predator when a whistleblower leak exposes his skeletons. Khanna’s interpretation is visceral: his baritone drops to a gravelly whisper in boardroom monologues, his gaze—a signature Khanna weapon—turns predatory, pinning viewers like prey. “I spent six months in silence, studying tycoons’ ticks—the fidgety fingers, the fleeting smiles,” Khanna revealed in a Mid-Day exclusive, crediting method acting mentors like Naseeruddin Shah for honing his “emotional excavation.”
The preparation was punishing: Khanna isolated in a Goa ashram, devouring Machiavelli’s The Prince and bingeing Succession’s Shiv Roy arcs, while dropping 7 kilograms through a regimen of fasting and functional training that included shadowboxing with shadows of his own doubts. On set, he ad-libbed Malhotra’s breakdowns— a rain-soaked rant on a penthouse balcony, veins bulging as he smashes a whiskey glass—infusing corporate lingo with lyrical lunacy: “Truth is a transaction I can no longer afford.” Sengupta, 38 and a former assistant to Anurag Kashyap, tailored the role for Khanna’s “brooding bandwidth”: “He brought layers I didn’t write—Malhotra’s not cartoon evil; he’s the devil in a designer suit.” The result? A performance that peels back privilege’s veneer, revealing the rot beneath, a far cry from Khanna’s lighter turns in Race 3 or Drishyam 2. Co-star Konkona Sen Sharma, as Malhotra’s disillusioned deputy, raved at the after-party: “Akshaye’s aura altered the air—every scene felt like walking on eggshells.”
Dhurandhar’s Dagger: A Plot Pierced with Peril
Dhurandhar, Reema Sengupta’s directorial sophomore after the 2023 indie darling Shadows of Silence, is a 135-minute psychological thriller that dissects the dark undercurrents of India’s media-industrial complex. Scripted by Juhi Chaturvedi (Piku, 2015), the narrative coils around Malhotra’s meticulously manicured life: a sprawling media conglomerate beaming biased broadcasts from Noida towers, bankrolled by shadowy politicians. When a junior reporter’s exposé on election rigging unravels his web, Malhotra’s meticulously manicured life fractures, unleashing a cat-and-mouse chase through Mumbai’s monsoons—from Marine Drive mansions to Dharavi’s dripping alleys. Khanna’s Malhotra is the narrative’s necrotic nerve: his initial urbane urbane unravels into unhinged urgency, a man whose monologues morph from measured menace to manic manifesto.
Sengupta’s sleight of hand shines: Steadicam shots snake through claustrophobic newsrooms, Amit Trivedi’s score—a brooding blend of bansuri laments and bass throbs—amplifies the unease. Twists lacerate: Malhotra’s “loyal” lieutenant (Sen Sharma) harbors a hidden agenda, her arc a subversive stab at token feminism. Ensemble elevations: Tripathi as a cynical cop with comedic cracks, Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a cameo as a rival baron whose banter bites. At 2 hours 15 minutes, Dhurandhar doles out dread without dragging, its climax—a rain-lashed rooftop revelation—leaving audiences gasping. Early verdicts from Scroll.in hail it as “a scalpel to the soul of sensationalism,” while Box Office India’s preview predicts Rs 60 crore opening weekend, challenging Andhadhun’s 340-crore lifetime.
Stellar Shadows: Co-Stars in Khanna’s Orbit
Dhurandhar’s galaxy gravitates around Khanna’s black hole, but its stars scintillate. Konkona Sen Sharma, 46 and post-A Death in the Gunj acclaim, imbues her whistleblower with weary wisdom, her duels with Khanna crackling like live circuits. “Akshaye’s menace is magnetic—you’re drawn in, then devoured,” Sen Sharma shared at the premiere, their chemistry a slow-simmering siege. Pankaj Tripathi, the sardonic savant of Mirzapur, injects irreverence as Inspector Vikram, his quips (“Sir, your news is fake; your fate is fatal”) punctuating the pall.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, 51 and a shape-shifter supreme, delivers a delicious cameo as Malhotra’s nemesis, his oily charm contrasting Khanna’s icy edge. Newcomer Tara Sutaria, 29, as Malhotra’s conflicted niece, adds poignant pathos, her arc from adoration to abhorrence a narrative nuance. Sengupta’s steering extracts ensemble excellence: montage sequences of Mumbai’s midnight monsoons mirroring moral monsoons, a visual verse that vitalizes the venom.
Critical Kudos and Crowd Craze: Acclaim’s Avalanche
Dhurandhar’s dawn has dawned dazzling. The Times of India’s Shubhra Gupta gushed: “Khanna’s tour de force turns thriller into tragedy—Dhurandhar daggers the heart.” Audience alphas at advance screenings skew 94 percent raves on BookMyShow, punters praising “Khanna’s killer charisma” and “twists that twist the knife.” Social spheres swarm: #DhurandharDarkness trends with 4.2 million posts, memes of Khanna’s glare grafted onto Gotham’s gloom.
Box office beacons blaze: Rs 70 crore nett Week 1 forecast, per Ormax Media, rivaling Drishyam 2’s 350-crore odyssey. Overseas, the UK desi diaspora eyes £3 million, Khanna’s global grunt from The Accidental Prime Minister paving paths.
Sengupta’s Shadow Play: Vision’s Venom, Khanna’s Venom
Reema Sengupta, 39 and a Kashyap acolyte, dreamed Dhurandhar as “a mirror to media’s monstrosity.” Pairing with Khanna post a 2024 script supper, she sculpted Malhotra for his “shadow soul.” Filmed in 72 days across Mumbai’s murk—real deluges drenching real despair—the flick flaunts a UA rating, its violence veiled yet visceral. Trivedi’s threnody-techno tapestry underscores the unraveling, while cinematographer Sayak Bhattacharya—shadows swallowing silhouettes—visually vivisects the villainy.
As Dhurandhar dawns on December 10, Akshaye Khanna’s dark turn doesn’t eclipse the ensemble; it engulfs it, a harbinger of heroes who haunt. In Bollywood’s blaze, his abyss beckons—a soar into the sinister, stealing not just scenes, but souls.