Akshaye Khanna: ‘After watching Dhurandhar’s success, directors’ thinking has changed’: Shehzad Khan says filmmakers now want the hit characters of the 90s and 2000s after Akshaye Khanna and Rakesh Bedi’s comeback in ‘Dhurandhar’ | Hindi Movie News
Shehzad Khan, son of legendary actor Ajit Khan, has said the success of ‘Dhurandhar’ has changed the way filmmakers look at actors from the 1990s and 2000s. He feels the franchise has opened the door for several of them to return to the big screen in strong roles.
Directors now want 90s and 2000s characters
His comments came after Akshaye Khanna and Rakesh Bedi earned praise for their work in the first and second parts of ‘Dhurandhar’, respectively. In an interview with ANI, Shehzad Khan said, “Now if you look at the villains, I think maybe ‘Dhurandhar’ can change the whole system to a large extent. After watching Dhurandhar’s success, people, especially the directors, their thinking and everything has changed.”He added, “Now they want those people, those characters, the hit characters of the 90s and 2000s, especially after Akshay Khanna, Rakesh Bedi sir, who got his work done. Absolutely, after so many years. So, now that thing is coming back. But everything goes up. It’s a circle. It’s a cycle. So everything that goes up has to come down.”
Villains of the 1970s were a different league
Shehzad Khan also said the villains of the 1970s cannot be directly compared with today’s actors. He was speaking about Arjun Rampal‘s villain role in ‘Dhurandhar’ and recalling stars such as Prem Chopra, Ranjeet and Pran.“You can’t compare Arjun Rampal to Ranjit sir, Prem Chopra sir, Premnath sir, Najit sir. Arjun Rampal is a different genre of villain. Ranjit sir and Pran sir, I mean, people have I saw that people had stopped naming their children Ranjit and Ajit. They said that if they grow up and become like this, then they won’t name them Ranjit and Ajit,” said Shehzad Khan.
Historic box office run of the franchise
The praise comes after the record-breaking run of Ranveer Singh‘s ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ in the later part of 2025 and the early months of 2026. The two films have reportedly earned more than Rs 3,000 crore worldwide.National Award-winning filmmaker Aditya Dhar directed the films. Along with Ranveer in the lead, the cast includes Rakesh Bedi, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Akshaye Khanna and Sanjay Dutt in important roles.
