If you came out of the theatre wondering, “Who exactly is Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar?”, you are not alone. In Aditya Dhar’s film, Rehman Dakait is the main antagonist played by Akshaye Khanna – a feared Karachi crime lord and power broker who rules Lyari with an iron fist, and he is closely inspired by a very real and terrifying gangster from Pakistan’s history.
Who is Rehman Dakait in the Dhurandhar movie?
In Dhurandhar, Rehman Dakait is introduced as the uncrowned king of Lyari – the man who controls Karachi’s most dangerous neighbourhood, runs a massive crime syndicate, and has deep links with politicians and the Pakistani establishment. He is the spider at the centre of the web that Ranveer Singh’s undercover spy Hamza must enter and slowly destroy from within.
Played by Akshaye Khanna with chilling calm, this Rehman is not a loud, over-the-top villain. He speaks less, watches more, and lets his reputation do the talking. One of his key lines – that the death he gives is “like a butcher’s” – sums up how the film wants you to see him: methodical, ruthless and almost ritualistic in his violence.
Is Rehman Dakait a real person?
Yes. The character is directly inspired by a real Karachi gangster – Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch, widely known as Rehman Dakait. He was a notorious crime lord from Lyari who dominated Karachi’s underworld in the 2000s, running extortion, drug trafficking, kidnappings and contract killings while also building political influence through the Peoples’ Aman Committee.
Born in 1975, the real Rehman reportedly started peddling drugs as a teenager and was said to have committed his first stabbing at just 13. Media accounts claim he later strangled his own mother and staged it as a suicide – a horrifying detail that Dhurandhar recreates in one of its most disturbing scenes, with some cinematic tweaks. He was eventually killed in a police encounter in 2009, after years of bloody gang wars with rival Arshad Pappu.
How Dhurandhar shows Rehman Dakait
Dhurandhar takes the spine of this real biography and builds a cinematic villain around it. Akshaye Khanna’s Rehman is shown as:
- The top boss of Lyari’s gangs, with Uzair Baloch as his trusted second-in-command.
- A man whose brutality is legendary – from public executions to revenge killings in broad daylight.
- Deeply embedded in a crime-politics nexus, dealing with shadowy military and intelligence figures while pretending to be a “social worker” for Lyari’s poor.
Even his entry scene and theme song “FA9LA” have gone viral because they capture his aura so perfectly – the music, his stillness and that cold gaze instantly tell you this is not a man to be messed with. Many viewers and critics feel Akshaye Khanna simply hijacks the film every time he is on screen.
Why Rehman Dakait is the scariest part of Dhurandhar
Part of what makes the character so memorable is the uncomfortable thought that this monster really existed. When you watch Dhurandhar and then read about the real Rehman Baloch – the murders, the gang wars, the stories of severed heads being kicked around like footballs – Akshaye Khanna’s performance suddenly feels even more haunting.
So, when someone asks, “Who is Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar?” you can answer confidently: he’s not just a random villain written for drama. He’s a thinly disguised version of Karachi’s real-life underworld king, brought to the big screen with chilling precision – and he’s a big reason why Dhurandhar lingers in your mind long after the credits roll.
