Akshaye Khanna's portrayal of Rahman Dakait in Aditya Dhar's "Dhurandhar" has captivated audiences, sparking interest in the real-life figure behind the character. Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch, known as Rehman Dakait, was a notorious gangster who terrorized Karachi's Lyari neighborhood in the 1990s and 2000s.
Born in 1975, Rehman Dakait's early life was steeped in crime. His father, Dad Muhammad, was involved in drug smuggling, and Rehman began peddling drugs at a young age. By the age of 13, he had allegedly committed his first violent crime, stabbing someone in a fit of rage. Some accounts even allege that he murdered his own mother at 19 during a domestic dispute.
Rehman Dakait rose to prominence in the late 1990s, joining Haji Laloo's gang and eventually taking control after Laloo's arrest in 2001. Over the next several years, he transformed Lyari into his personal crime fortress, with close allies like Uzair Baloch and Baba Ladla by his side. His gang engaged in drug distribution, extortion, kidnappings, and armed warfare, establishing a parallel empire to the local political structure. Some reports claim that Rehman's gang members played football with the severed heads of their victims to instill fear.
Rehman Dakait also formed the Peoples' Aman Committee (PAC), which was ostensibly a community welfare group but in reality, served as a front for his gang's activities. He forged ties with political leaders from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), providing them with muscle during elections in exchange for protection.
SSP Chaudhry Aslam led a police operation in August 2009 that resulted in Rehman Dakait's death. At the time of his death, he was 34 years old. Following his demise, his cousin Uzair Baloch assumed control of the gang and continued its operations.
Akshaye Khanna's portrayal of Rehman Dakait in "Dhurandhar" has been lauded for its intensity and chilling depiction of the notorious gangster. While the film takes creative liberties with the story, it is inspired by the real-life events and figures of Karachi's gangland world. "Dhurandhar" blends real events with fiction to craft a gripping portrayal of India's covert war on terror inside Pakistan. The movie is set in the late 2000s in Karachi’s Lyari – a notorious stronghold of gang violence. In the film, Ranveer Singh plays Hamza, an undercover agent who infiltrates Rehman’s network, feeding critical intelligence to India as he works to bring the operation down from the inside. Other cast members include Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sara Arjun. "Dhurandhar" was released on December 5, 2025 and has grossed ₹152 crore in its opening weekend.
