Ranveer Singh plays Jaskirat Singh Rangi, who turns into Hamza Ali Mazari, in Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar films. (Photo: Jio Studios/Instagram)Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar franchise emerged as the biggest success in the history of Hindi cinema, but the film’s soundtrack arguably left an even deeper imprint. Composed by Shashwat Sachdev, the music struck a chord with audiences nationwide, with its unconventional melodies and bold sonic choices quickly turning the composer into a household name. Recently, Shashwat appeared on Shekhar Suman’s talk show Shekhar Tonite, where he spoke about his creative journey with Dhurandhar and revealed why he was initially reluctant to compose the music for Dhar’s directorial debut, Uri: The Surgical Strike.Reflecting on his hesitation, he said, “Aditya is extremely close to me, so there’s no wall between us. I told him that we should get a really good musician to do Uri. I said, ‘It’s our film, why should we jeopardise it? Because your destiny and mine are connected’. So I told him that. That was one of the reasons I didn’t want to do Uri. At least to some extent. If you ever speak to him about it, he would probably agree.”Recorded ‘Phir Se’ days before releaseDuring the same conversation, Shashwat also looked back at the making of ‘Phir Se’, the emotional track that plays during the climax of Dhurandhar: The Revenge. He revealed that the song came together just days before the film’s release and recalled being in an emotionally difficult place when he first sat down to compose it. He said, “The day came when we were supposed to compose the piece. Around 6 or 8 pm, I woke up and went downstairs to our music room. Everyone was there. I sat down and tried working on something for 15-30 minutes, but nothing was really happening. I was in a terrible state that day.”Shashwat further recalled, “Lokesh (Dhar) bhaiya, who was one of the producers, came into the room. I was deeply disturbed about something that day and I broke down crying. Everyone got worried, wondering, “What’s happened to him?” They all came inside and comforted me, saying, “Don’t stress. It’ll happen. We’ll figure out the music.”” He went on to describe how a visit to a temple unexpectedly changed the course of the song’s creation.He said, “Around the same time, we all went to a temple together for prayers. After that, we returned to the music room. On the way back, Aditya said, ‘You were humming something upstairs before we left for the temple, it sounded really good.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He replied, ‘No, seriously, I have a feeling about it.’ At the time, I thought he was just trying to cheer me up. Then he said, ‘Don’t let that melody go. We’re done. That’s it’.”Also Read | The women of Omkara make it the crown jewel of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespeare trilogyRecalling how quickly the composition came together after that, he said, “Then the 13th or 14th came around, and the film was close to release. The first show was on the 17th. On the 14th, Aditya came into the room where we usually worked and said, ‘Let’s, make that song, yaar. You still have that voice note, right?’ He came into the room, we listened to the voice note, and I sang something to him, I just kept humming it over and over again. Then he said, ‘It’s done now’.”Story continues below this adShashwat added that lyricist Irshad Kamil later penned the lyrics, completing the song. When they finally played it for Aditya Dhar, the filmmaker instantly knew they had created something special. Recalling Dhar’s reaction, Shashwat said, “He said, ‘This is your best song. I’m telling you, this is your best song’.”About Dhurandhar seriesDirected by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar is a two-part film starring Ranveer Singh alongside Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi and Sara Arjun. The film chronicles the journey of an Indian spy operating in Pakistan and went on to become one of the biggest commercial and cultural successes in Indian cinema, earning over Rs 3000 crore worldwide.