Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge has created history in Indian cinema after it hit theatres on March 19. Its unstoppable run at the box office has cemented its place as one of the biggest blockbusters. Starring Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun, R Madhavan, and Rakesh Bedi, the action spy thriller has won hearts. Now the SFX supervisor has revealed some interesting insights into the explosive climax of the film.
Dhurandhar 2 SFX supervisor on the climax scene
Amid the massive success, Dhurandhar 2’s SFX supervisor, Vishal Tyagi, opened up about the making of the massive tanker explosion scene in the climax. He revealed that the sequence was executed entirely in reality, without the use of any CGI.
In a recent interview with Hindi Rush, Vishal Tyagi shared that, unlike the usual method of creating smaller blasts and enhancing them with visual effects, director Aditya Dhar was clear about avoiding the use of CGI, especially for the explosion sequences. As a result, he gave the team complete creative freedom to execute them practically.
Tyagi also revealed that they used as much as 500 litres of petrol for the climax scene in Dhurandhar 2. He shared, “The tanker blast in the climax was the toughest thing to create. The biggest safety concern we had was for this particular scene. Imagine burning 500 litres of petrol for real. There was no CG at all. Every tiny detail in the scene is real. We had concerns that while blasting the tankers, the flames should not reach Ranveer Singh, who was walking in close proximity. We did all the work and precisely told Ranveer Singh where he could start walking.”
Ranveer was at greater risk
Vishal also shared that although the sequence featured both Arjun Rampal and Ranveer Singh, Ranveer was at greater risk during the filming. He said, “Arjun Rampal was there in the shot, and then we removed him before taking the explosion shot—obviously. I was majorly concerned for Ranveer, but he wasn’t as concerned for himself. Mostly because he had seen our work and knew how precisely I briefed everyone about the explosions. After the shot, he would only say one thing—‘Faad diya tune!’ We had done Arjun Reddy’s pack-up; he could have gone back to his van, but everybody stayed back to watch the explosion.”
Further talking about the immense pressure behind executing the sequence, Vishal Tyagi shared that the team worked with a real train base and containers for the explosion, which made it highly challenging yet achievable with confidence. He shared that while the production initially suggested using 250 litres of fuel, he insisted on increasing it to at least 500 litres to achieve the expected impact. The SFX supervisor further shared that around 25 kilos of explosives were placed in each tank to create the intended effect.