📌 Key Points
- Arjun Rampal recalls the 26/11 Mumbai attacks he witnessed on his birthday.
- Rampal felt working on ‘Dhurandhar’ was a personal ‘revenge’ against the attack.
- He recounts being stuck in a hotel during the attacks and witnessing the horror firsthand.
- Rampal played ISI Major Iqbal in ‘Dhurandhar’, a key handler behind the 26/11 attacks.
Arjun Rampal recently shared his harrowing experience of witnessing the 26/11 Mumbai attacks on his birthday. He revealed that working on the film ‘Dhurandhar,’ which depicted the attacks, felt like a personal form of revenge.
Arjun Rampal’s 26/11 Birthday Horror
Filmmaker Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar , which released in December last year, depicted the harrowing night of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, leaving audiences shaken. During his recent appearance at the HELLO! Hall of Fame Awards, Arjun Rampal recalled witnessing the horrors of the attacks first-hand and revealed how working on Dhurandhar felt like a form of personal revenge.
Recalling the moment, the actor said, “I heard that sound and the whole glass kind of shook and rattled, and we were like, ‘What the hell was that?’ Within 10 minutes, our phones started ringing and everyone said there was some gang war that had broken out in Colaba. In 20–30 minutes, the entire Four Seasons hotel was cordoned off. Adarsh Jatia very graciously gave me a suite and said, ‘You can stay here for the night, but we can’t let anybody go out, it’s not safe.’”
Dhurandhar: A Form of Revenge
He added, “On my birthday, I saw the horrors of 26/11 play out. In the morning, when I drove back home, I had to stop at least three times because I felt like I was going to be sick. When Aditya Dhar narrated the 26/11 sequence to me, I knew I was going to have my revenge — and that’s what I did with Dhurandhar. All I want to say is, Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”
Role as ISI Major Iqbal
In Dhurandhar, Arjun Rampal essayed the role of ISI Major Iqbal, one of the key handlers behind the attack. His character is shown celebrating and partying while being in live contact with the terrorists at the hotel. In the sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Ranveer Singh’s character Hamza takes his revenge and kills Iqbal after a brutal confrontation. The film also features Rakesh Bedi, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun and R Madhavan among others in key roles.
Rampal’s experience highlights the enduring impact of the 26/11 attacks on those who witnessed them. His role in ‘Dhurandhar’ provided a unique, albeit fictional, outlet for his feelings about the tragedy.
