Unfair that Ranveer Singh got sidelined while Akshaye Khanna became a sensation on the internet, says their ‘Dhurandhar’ co-star talks about the latter’s reserved nature: ‘He would speak very warmly’ |

A month after its theatrical release, ‘Dhurandhar’ continues to dominate the box office and has now crossed Rs 760 crore net in India. The Aditya Dhar directorial is headlined by Ranveer Singh and stars Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal in pivotal roles. While Ranveer won a lot of praise, it was Akshaye who broke the internet as his entry song and performance as Rahman Dakait was the most talked about. In a recent interview, actor Naveen Kaushik who plays Rahman Dakait’s trusted aide in the film, believes the conversation around performances has been somewhat one-sided.He said in a recent interview that it’s unfair that Akshaye has gotten all the attention while Ranveer has been sidelined. He pointed out that Ranveer had to focus on “containing his energy and delivering an extremely subtle, monotone performance throughout the film,” he said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan.

Addressing perceptions about Akshaye Khanna’s reserved nature, Naveen clarified that the actor was never distant or cold. “If we went up to him for a conversation, he would speak very warmly. But once the conversation ended, he would retreat back into his space and so would we. I don’t know if it was method acting, but just like Rahman Dakait, who stays quiet, observes, and remains unpredictable, Akshaye sir was quite similar in real life. He stayed away from the chaos on set and focused solely on his character.”Naveen then spoke about Ranveer Singh, highlighting how starkly different the actor is from his on-screen persona Hamza. “Hamza is completely different from Ranveer. Ranveer is a ball of energy—a thousand-volt electric current. Whenever he’s on set, he greets everyone. He doesn’t like people sitting around lazily,” he said. Emphasising the contrast between the two key characters, he added, “These two characters, Hamza and Rahman, are poles apart. Every time the director said ‘cut’, Ranveer would instantly switch back to being himself, unless it was a very serious scene. He had a child-like curiosity throughout, with absolutely no ‘I am a huge star’ tantrums.”He also marked change in Ranveer’s emotional state during this film compared to earlier projects. “He wasn’t depressed the way he once spoke about being during Padmaavat. This time, it felt like he had an internal switch, he could move from Hamza to Ranveer in a click. He has incredible energy to play such varied characters. No one can match that.”While acknowledging the impact of Akshaye Khanna’s portrayal, Naveen reiterated that Ranveer’s work deserved more credit. “I do feel it’s unfair. Akshaye sir has undoubtedly created an iconic character that will be remembered for years. But what Ranveer has done as an actor, the tiny nuances, his voice modulation, for someone who is so energetic in real life to suppress all of that and play the complete opposite, it’s extremely difficult.”Referring to a standout sequence, Naveen said, “In the famous ‘FA9LA’ song, everyone in the scene is dancing, except Ranveer Singh. To restrain yourself in a moment like that is incredibly hard. But people didn’t notice it because of Akshaye sir’s commanding aura. Ranveer’s character is deliberately underplayed. He doesn’t seek attention. In the film, the first man in command is Akshaye, followed by Danish. If Ranveer had ego issues, he could have easily tried to draw focus to himself, but he didn’t. An insecure actor would have done that. Ranveer stayed true to his character and allowed someone else to shine.”Speaking about their off-screen dynamic, Naveen described a professional and collaborative relationship between the two actors. “Ranveer and Akshaye shared a very cordial relationship on set. They rehearsed together, looked out for each other, whether it was during rehearsals or something as simple as arranging chairs. They were great collaborators.”