While ‘Dhurandhar 2’ continues to dominate the box office, Arjun Rampal’s portrayal of a cold-blooded ISI agent has left audiences stunned. However, behind the screen, the actor shares a haunting personal history with the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Arjun recently revealed that he was supposed to be at the Taj Hotel for his birthday dinner on that fateful night in 2008, but a friend’s delay saved his life.

Acting as a Form of Closure: Rampal recalled watching the carnage on TV during his birthday celebrations at a hotel in Worli. “I felt physically ill returning home the next morning,” he shared. When offered the role in ‘Dhurandhar,’ Arjun saw it as an opportunity to channel his years of suppressed anger. Despite the difficulty of playing an anti-Indian character, he felt that depicting the harsh reality was his way of taking a symbolic revenge for the tragedy that scarred the nation.