Is Dhurandhar Really Based on Major Mohit Sharma’s Life?

When the trailer of Dhurandhar released, it came with a simple pitch. A spy action film set largely in Pakistan, inspired by real events, fronted by Ranveer Singh as a deep cover operative. Within hours, social media added a much sharper question on top.

Is this actually the story of Ashoka Chakra awardee Major Mohit Sharma, only without using his name

That question did not stay online. Major Sharma’s parents went to the Delhi High Court, the court pulled the censor board back into the process, the director issued an official clarification, and entertainment news portals started describing the controversy almost as a second plot line of the film.

To answer it properly, you have to look at three things together. Who Major Mohit Sharma really was, what his family and the film makers said, and what Dhurandhar actually shows on screen.
Official summaries describe Dhurandhar as a large scale spy film that draws inspiration from real life geopolitical tensions and covert work by Indias external intelligence agency R and AW. The plot is set against the backdrop of the IC 814 hijacking and the Parliament attack. The story follows intelligence chief Ajay Sanyal, who designs a plan to infiltrate and break a terror network in Pakistan through a long duration mission called Operation Dhurandhar.

Ranveer Singh plays Hamza Ali Mazari, who lives inside the gang ridden Lyari area of Karachi and appears to be a local with Baloch roots. Over time, the audience learns that he is actually Captain Jaskirat Singh Rangi, a young man from Punjab who was once in an Indian unit and who is now being used as a deniable asset in this deep cover mission.

That mix of ingredients was enough for many viewers to draw a straight line. A uniformed officer, a secret identity, a long infiltration inside hostile territory, and a marketing line that says inspired by true events. In the Indian context, one of the best known stories that looks even remotely similar is that of Major Mohit Sharma, and social media immediately filled that gap with his name.
Major Mohit Sharma served in One Para Special Forces, one of the most elite units in the Indian Army. Official citations and later profiles record that he once operated undercover in Kashmir under the assumed identity of Iftikhar Bhatt, a Kashmiri youth who had lost a younger brother and who was presented as a potential recruit to a militant group. This phase of his service earned him the Sena Medal for gallantry.

In March two thousand nine, during an operation in the Kupwara sector of Jammu and Kashmir, he led an assault team into a dense forest area after information about infiltrating terrorists. He is recorded as having rescued fellow soldiers under fire, eliminated several terrorists and continuing the fight despite serious injuries, before succumbing. He was posthumously awarded the Ashoka Chakra for this action.

So the public story around him combines four strong elements. Special forces training, a period of undercover work under a false identity, a return to direct combat in Kashmir, and a final mission in which he died while saving others.
In late November two thousand twenty five, his parents approached the Delhi High Court with a plea that asked for a stay on the release of Dhurandhar. They argued that the makers had created a film that was presented as based on true events and that appeared to resemble their sons life and service, without any consent from the family or the Army.

They also asked for a private screening before public release. Reports on the petition say the family feared that their sons legacy was being used for commercial gain and that sensitive aspects of his story might be dramatised in a way that they could not control.

The court did not freeze the film, but it did act. It directed the Central Board of Film Certification to review the objections and to consider the concerns of the parents carefully before allowing certification.

That order alone was enough to convince many viewers that there must be a close connection, even before any detailed legal conclusion.
As speculation grew, director Aditya Dhar replied publicly to a direct question about the film on X. He wrote that Dhurandhar is not based on the life of braveheart Major Mohit Sharma, and called that statement an official clarification. He also added that if there is ever a biographical film on Major Sharma in future it would be made only with full consent of the family and in consultation with them.

Following the High Court direction, the CBFC re examined the film. After this second look, the board stated that Dhurandhar is a fictional work, that it has the usual disclaimer about not being based on specific individuals, and that it does not have a direct or indirect link to Major Mohit Sharma’s life. The film kept its adult rating because of violent content but received a clearance to release.

The court then declined to stay the release. Taken together, the regulator and the court treated the film as fiction rather than as a disguised biopic.
The plot details that are now public show some clear choices. Dhurandhar spends most of its time in Karachi’s Lyari neighbourhood, among gang leaders, Pakistani police and terror handlers, with real figures like encounter specialist Chaudhry Aslam, gangster Rehman Dakait and militant leader Ilyas Kashmiri used as models for fictional characters.

The Indian side of the story is framed through events like IC 814 and the Parliament attack, through an intelligence chief designing a long term infiltration operation, and through the recruitment of a young inmate from Punjab for that mission.

That world is different from the forest of Kupwara where Major Mohit Sharma died. It is different from his known undercover phase, which took place among militants in Kashmir rather than in the Karachi underworld.

What is similar is the pattern. A man in uniform, a new identity, a long mission on the wrong side of the border, loyalty tested in grey spaces. For a country with only a few widely known stories of this kind of work, any large film built on that pattern will feel like it is talking about the same small group of real people, even when the script is in fact a composite drawn from many events and legends.
If you go by feeling, Dhurandhar will remind many viewers of Major Mohit Sharma and also of agents like Ravindra Kaushik, who lived undercover in Pakistan for years as part of a different kind of operation. If you go by what is on record, a different picture appears.

The parents believe the film trespasses too close to their sons story. The director has issued a written assurance that it is not based on him. The CBFC, after a specific re examination ordered by the Delhi High Court, has stated that the film is fictional and not linked to his life. The plot that is available in the public domain places the story in a setting and sequence that do not match the known facts of his service and last battle.

So the factual answer is clear. Dhurandhar is not a biographical film about Major Mohit Sharma. It is a fictional spy story built on real events and environments, whose themes overlap with the limited set of covert hero stories that India already knows, and that overlap is what keeps the question alive.