Actor Danish Iqbal says he was as surprised to discover that his character of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was the elusive Bade Sahab in Dhurandhar film franchise.

The mystery surrounding Bade Sahab had been a major talking point since the release of the first film in December 2025, with speculation rife over the identity of the shadowy figure controlling the narrative from behind the scenes.

“I got my Eidi a little early... I knew that I was playing Dawood Ibrahim in this film, but I didn’t know that Dawood Ibrahim is 'Bade Sahab' to be very honest. So I kept wondering who could be Bade Sahab. But when only a few weeks were left before the film’s release, somewhere I started to feel that maybe Dawood Ibrahim’s character itself could be Bade Sahab,” Iqbal told PTI in an interview.

In the first instalment, Bade Sahab is depicted as an unseen but omnipresent force influencing crime networks, intelligence handlers and political operatives, without ever appearing on screen.

The secrecy around the role triggered widespread speculation, with names such as Salman Khan and Emraan Hashmi doing the rounds.

“People were really interested in knowing who is going to play Bade Sahab rather than what Bade Sahab is going to do in the film. Sometimes one actor’s name would come up, sometimes another actor’s name would come up. Many times I also wondered who was playing this character,” he said.

“The way everything was created, the world of that character when people saw it, they forgot about which actor it was. They started focusing on the character itself. And that is the beauty that when a character is properly brought to life on screen, people appreciate the art more rather than glorifying the personality of the actor. They start liking the character. The appreciation I received for my acting talent became more important,” Iqbal added.

Iqbal said he consciously avoided referencing earlier portrayals of Ibrahim in films such as Company, Black Friday, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and D-Day.

“I was worried that I might get trapped in that circle, that I have to portray the character's image... But then I forgot that this is the name of a character who has a reference in front of us. And all the actors who have portrayed him because then I wouldn't have been able to play this role,” he said.

"I was thinking that these are the given circumstances and these are the dialogues. These are his co-actors with whom he is talking and these are his problems. And what is his demand? What does he want? Focusing on all these things, I made the character. I didn't imitate anyone,” the actor added.

Iqbal also praised director Aditya Dhar and casting director Mukesh Chhabra for ensuring equitable screen presence across the ensemble cast, which includes Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sanjay Dutt.

“In Indian cinema, we have this tendency that a veteran or a star gets more screen time while an important but lesser known character gets minimalistic presence. But here Aditya sir stuck to his characters, to his storyline -- what is good for the scene, what is good for the film,” he said.