The Atif Aslam reference you may have missed in Dhurandhar: Here’s how the Pakistani singer and his absence made it to the Ranveer Singh blockbuster

“Aslam wapis aa gaya (Aslam is back),” Rehman tells Jamali. Pretending he has nothing to do with it, Jameel asks, “Atif Aslam? Wo kahan gaya tha? (Where did he go?).” As Rehman retains his poker face, Jameeli corrects himself and says they should not worry about Aslam’s return. Later, Aslam attempts two attacks on Rehman and his men.

Jameeli’s reference to Atif Aslam’s absence also has a more interesting background. Earlier this year, after the Pahalgam terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir in April, a number of Pakistanti artists’ social media accounts were blocked in India. Instagram users could see this message when they visited Atif’s profile: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”

Rakesh Bedi’s ‘relief shot’

On SCREEN Spotlight, Bedi revealed how he injected humour into his portrayal of a scheming Paksitani politician despite Aditya Dhar’s initial reservations. “There’s already a lot of tension in the film. When you watch a violent scene, it doesn’t happen in isolation. There’s a build-up to, and then there are also the repercussions after each violent sequence. The audience would hope that once Rakesh Bedi enters the frame, there’ll be a spark,” said the actor.

Here’s Rakesh Bedi taking a deep dive into playing Jamali in Dhurandhar…

When Bedi tried to do something funny in one of the more intense scenes, Dhar intervened. “There’s a shot of mine signalling ‘Screw you, boss!’ which has now become a GIF. When he asked me not to do it, I told him when I used to do that in a play where the situation was the same, the audience would erupt into laughter. But see now, it even made it to the trailer,” added Bedi.

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The veteran actor described it technically as a “relief shot.” “If you make a film tense for three hours in one go, then the audience would get overwhelmed. So, you need to break that with some humour,” said Bedi. He’ll reprise his role in the sequel of Dhurandhar, slated to release in cinemas on March 19, 2026.