MUMBAI: In a film as unflinchingly intense as Dhurandhar, the brutality doesn’t just unfold on screen it lives on the skin of its characters. Every scar, every gash, every smear of blood had to feel startlingly real, demanding hours of intricate prosthetic work and on-set precision. From open wounds built layer by layer, to sweat, dust, tanning, and climate-worn textures, the film’s visual violence was crafted with obsessive detail. Leading this transformative effort was HMU & Prosthetics Head Preetisheel, whose artistry ensured that the world Aditya Dhar envisioned didn’t just look raw it felt lived, battered, and brutally honest.
Talking about the same Preetisheel shares “Working on this film was a really special experience because I got to transform so many different actors into such powerful characters. Be it Hamza, Iqbal, SP Aslam, Sanyal or Rehman, each character was played by such strong actors that it was a challenge to give them looks that were different from each other yet belonging to the same world. Every character whether their role was big or small had a clear backstory, and that made the process much more meaningful.”
With an ensemble led by Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan and Arjun Rampal, individuality and consistency had to coexist. Preetisheel explains that the script demanded a visual universe where every character’s appearance felt rooted in the same soil but still distinct enough to instantly communicate personality.
She further adds “I put a lot of thought into even the secondary and tertiary character as well because they each had their own quirks and unique traits. Showing their rawness through makeup was important to me. Adding detailed layers and textures helped bring out who they really were, making even the briefest appearances feel real and lived-in. Hair became a key storytelling tool, evolving across the film to show time, pressure, and emotional shifts. Even little elements like scars, tanning, sweat, and dust were added with purpose and matched meticulously for continuity. And the blood work and prosthetics took things to another level; some of it is genuinely stomach-churning.”
“Creating those visceral injuries and killings added a brutal honesty to the film that I’m really proud of. It felt like I was helping tell each character’s story in the best way I could. None of which would be possible without my amazing team that stood by me and worked hard all throughout the film to bring my vision to life.”
In a film driven by its visual grit, the HMU and prosthetics department became one of Dhurandhar’s most crucial details. Preetisheel’s meticulous craft has helped build a world that feels unforgiving, lived-in, and unmistakably real.
Dhurandhar is a high octane action-thriller written, directed, and produced by Aditya Dhar, and produced by Jyoti Deshpande and Lokesh Dhar. Presented by Jio Studios, a B62 Studios the film opened to massive numbers at the box office. Audiences across demographics are embracing this genre-bending spy–gangster action entertainer with unprecedented enthusiasm.
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