A conversation on Koffee With Karan 9 has put one of Hindi cinema’s quiet development-phase what-ifs on the record. Sidharth Malhotra confirmed that he was once attached to an Aditya Dhar film at Dharma Productions, years before Dhar became known for Uri: The Surgical Strike and before Malhotra played Captain Vikram Batra in Shershaah.
The reveal was brief, but for readers who track careers as closely as releases, it connects two filmographies that later grew in parallel.
The exchange, in short
When host Karan Johar named Aditya Dhar among the directors of the moment and asked Malhotra whom he would do anything to work with, Malhotra pointed to Dhar because he had interacted with him in the past. Johar then reminded him that a project had been planned “many moons ago,” and Malhotra replied, “Yes, in Dharma itself.”
Neither went further. Johar had placed Dhar in a list with Mohit Suri, Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Sanjay Leela Bhansali; that framing made the old attachment at Dharma the only choice grounded in prior history. No title, timeline, casting, or reason for the project stalling was shared.
What we can and cannot infer
- Sidharth Malhotra was attached to an Aditya Dhar-directed film at Dharma Productions.
- The project predates Dhar’s 2019 directorial debut, Uri: The Surgical Strike, and never reached shooting.
- There is no indication that a new Malhotra-Dhar collaboration is currently in development.
The source did not include a title, a year, or an explanation for why the project stopped. That absence is itself the point: the film exists only as a decision remembered in conversation.
Why the near-miss matters
The significance is in the filmographies that followed. Malhotra has returned repeatedly to defence and national-security stories: Aiyaary (2018), Shershaah (2021), Mission Majnu (2023) and Yodha (2024). Dhar built his reputation with Uri: The Surgical Strike and has stayed in large-scale action and military territory with the Dhurandhar films.
The shelved Dharma project suggests that this shared interest in action and institutional storytelling was present before either artist had fully arrived. For audiences who treat Hindi cinema as a continuing record, such near-misses are useful: they show that genres often take shape in development rooms before they become visible on screen.
What to watch next
Malhotra’s public comment that he would be excited to work with Dhar is now on the record, but that is not a confirmation of anything greenlit. In an industry where a talk-show line can restart an old conversation, the practical signal is to wait for a formal announcement from Dharma Productions or either artist.
For now, the story remains what it was on the show: a project that existed in intention, never in production.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
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