It is not common in India for the director of the movies to become the centre stage of conversation, especially after their release. However, ‘Dhurandhar’ Aditya Dhar has flipped the script. Ever since the release of the Ranveer Singh headliner in December 2025, appreciation for the director has flooded social media. Naturally, the interest in the director is heightened before the release of Dhurandhar 2 on March 19.
Known as an ace filmmaker today, movie direction was not even on young Aditya Dhar’s mind. Veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan shared some insights into the early struggles of his life. He shared that Dhar used to play cricket and was on the precipice of playing U-19.
Speaking to Mashable India, Priyadarshan shared, “He was a cricketer but he could not get into the Under-19 team because of some political influence so he was moved out. He was very disappointed sitting at home. Someone called him to see a film, and that was Gardish. He said he saw Gardish and said, ‘This is something I want to do and I came to Mumbai’.” If reports are to be believed, Dhar lost out on the Under-19 spot on the Indian Cricket Team to Roger Binny’s son, Stuart Binny, who performance at the time was allegedly questionable. The pivot in his career has made Aditya Dhar a ₹1300 crore grosser.
Success did not come easily to Dhar in Bollywood as well. In the Hindi film industry, the director had to go through his fair share of red tape, politics and rejection. In the same conversation, Priyadarshan shared that Aditya penned the dialogues for many films but did not receive his due credit.
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The 43-year old finally made his directorial debut with the movie Uri: The Surgicial Strike in 2019. His second directorial is Dhurandhar.
