Dhruva: Fact vs. Fiction in Bollywood Blockbuster

Aditya Dhar's action film, Dhurandhar, which premiered on December 5, 2025, has achieved significant box office success and is now available on Netflix. The movie expertly weaves together historical events with fictional narratives. Several incidents depicted in the film, including the 1999 Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 hijack and the December 13, 2001, attack on India's Parliament, are based on real occurrences that influenced national security.

The film also incorporates real footage from the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, with director Aditya Dhar using these events to heighten the depicted national tension. Furthermore, the location Lyari in Karachi, Pakistan, is a real place featured in the movie. The narrative includes characters loosely inspired by actual individuals, such as 'Rehman Dakait' (based on Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch) and 'SP Chaudhary Aslam' (inspired by senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam Khan).

Other notable inspirations include R. Madhavan's character 'Ajay Sanyal', reportedly based on former National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and Arjun Rampal's 'Major Iqbal', believed to be inspired by Ilyas Kashmiri. Rakesh Bedi's character also drew from Pakistani political figures. Despite these factual underpinnings, the film's core plot, including 'Operation Dhurandhar' and Ranveer Singh's protagonist 'Hamza', is fictional. Characters like 'Yalina Jamali', played by Sara Arjun, were created to add depth, and personal lives are dramatized for entertainment. Dhurandhar 2 is slated for release on March 19, 2025.