Mumbai, Apr 1: Gaurav Gera’s moment under the sun for his performance in Aditya Dhar’s “Dhurandhar” feels like a personal victory for Mona Singh, his co-star and friend from the days of hit daily soap “Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin”.
Singh and Gera featured as best friends Jassi and Nandu in the popular TV show that ran from 2003 to 2006, and have remained close friends and each other’s biggest cheerleaders off-screen ever since.
In “Dhurandhar”, a two-part spy saga, Gera played Mohammad Aalam, an Indian spy working undercover as a juice vendor in the Lyari area of Pakistan’s Karachi, secretly assisting Ranveer Singh’s Hamza Ali Mazari to infiltrate the gang of Akshaye Khanna’s Rehman Dakait.
“Of course, it does (feel like personal victory). I feel so proud of him. He’s worked very hard and he deserves all the appreciation and accolades coming his way. He’s always been there when my shows are released, giving his inputs, telling me what he liked, what he didn’t like,” Singh told PTI in an interview.
“So, I’m the same for him. We’re both celebrating each other’s success,” added the actor, who is herself on a roll with performances in movies and shows such as “Laal Singh Chaddha”, “Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos”, “Made in Heaven”, “The Ba***ds of Bollywood” and “Kohrra”.
Interestingly, Singh and Gera met in Amritsar while they were filming for their respective projects “Kohrra 2” and “Dhurandhar”.
An excited Gera began showing her behind-the-scenes glimpses of his physical transformation — a salt-white beard, textured ageing and cropped hair.
Singh said she immediately cautioned him against it, drawing from her own experience of strict NDAs during her “Jassi…” days.
“When you’re so passionate about something that you do, you definitely don’t want to spoil that, you respect your craft, NDA, you respect all that. A lot of detailing, a lot of time goes into creating a character, a story so when Gaurav was showing me all the pictures, I was like, don’t do this.
“I didn’t do this during my ‘Jassi…’ time. I didn’t show my pictures to people that this is how I look, but this is what I play, there were strict NDAs and you need to follow that. So, I told him, ‘Mat kar’, don’t show this to people, don’t talk about your craft.”
She added that Gera was bursting with excitement but understood the importance of not spilling details about the film and his character before it hits the screen.
“He was like, ‘You’re so right, I’m just excited.’ He was excited because he was doing something so big after such a long time, so he wanted to share it with his friends. But I was careful, I’m pretty vigilant when it comes to that. I make sure that nothing goes out of the set,” Singh added.
“Dhurandhar” released in 2025, followed by the release of the second part on March 19, both were directed by Aditya Dhar. The first part of the action spy thriller amassed Rs 1000 crore globally and the latest film, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge”, has earned over Rs 1300 crore at the global box office.
The film also features Sara Arjun, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi and Danish Pandor in pivotal roles.
Produced by Jyoti Deshpande and Lokesh Dhar, the film was released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam languages. (PTI)
