Step Inside Lyari: Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2 Sets Revealed
Dhurandhar 2 recreates Karachi’s Lyari on a 6‑acre Bangkok set designed by Saini S Johray.
The world of Lyari, the notorious Karachi locality that forms the gritty backdrop of Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2, has been recreated in staggering detail on a massive six‑acre set in Bangkok by production designer Saini S. Johray and his team. The construction, which involved about 500 workers and took roughly three months of design and 20 days of intensive build‑out, was designed to feel like a living, breathing neighbourhood rather than a static film set.
Johray’s team studied old Pakistani news footage, Urdu signboards, street layouts, and local architecture to mirror Lyari’s narrow alleys, crowded shops, and graffiti‑tagged walls. The result is a functional “town” complete with courtyards, lanes, and street‑level activity, allowing Ranveer Singh and the ensemble cast to move through the environment authentically, without relying heavily on visual effects.
The set includes not only dense residential sections but also key period‑correct details such as vintage signage, crates, bicycles, and worn‑out façades that evoke the 1999–2009 era in which the story is set. This physical realism has helped intensify the film’s underworld and intelligence‑agency drama, making Lyari itself a central character in the narrative instead of just a backdrop.
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According to Johray, Dhurandhar 2 stands out as one of the most location‑heavy and design‑intensive films of his career, with the crew shooting an average of four distinct set pieces per day. By constructing Lyari so meticulously thousands of kilometres away in Thailand, the makers have managed to project the colour and chaos of Karachi’s streets onto the big screen while sidestepping the logistical and political hurdles of shooting in Pakistan.
Behind the scenes, the Lyari set has become a talking point not just for its scale but also for the way it blends research‑driven design with on‑ground practicality. For audiences, stepping into this version of Lyari via the camera feels less like watching a film set and more like slipping into the volatile, layered world of Karachi’s oldest neighbourhood—exactly the immersive effect the set designer aimed to create.
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