From Ranveer Singh's 'Dhurandhar' to Ektaa R Kapoor's 'The Terror Report': What happens when journalists step into the world of filmmaking

There was a time when filmmakers went to journalists for archives, maybe a late-night phone call to “understand the background.” That equation is rapidly changing. Now, the journalists are in the room from day one - from shaping the story, questioning it, sometimes even producing it. And you can feel the difference on screen.

Aditya Raj Kaul – _Dhurandhar_

Kaul doesn’t approach a story like a screenwriter. He approaches it like someone who has chased it. Years of reporting on intelligence networks means he understands not just what happened, but how information moves. Weaving in who knows what, and when fed directly into _Dhurandhar_, where he worked as a research consultant with Aditya Dhar. His work around cases like the IC-814 hijacking became part of the film’s internal logic. From the way tension builds, the way decisions are made in fragments, that’s why the film doesn’t feel “researched.” It feels like story in motion like a well-made movie should.

Sudhir Chaudhary – The Terror Report

If you’ve watched Indian news over the last two decades, you’ve seen Chaudhary in moments when the country itself felt on edge. From the Kargil War to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, he was inside the churn of them, breaking them down night after night. That kind of exposure changes how you see a story. You stop thinking in headlines. You start thinking in consequences. With The Terror Report forthcoming, directed by Vishnu Varadhan, that sensibility carries over. Backed by Balaji Telefilms and Ellipsis Entertainment, the film leans on his understanding of how terror is not about the mere event, but a chain reaction stemming from political, emotional and even human fallacies. You can sense that it’s coming from someone who has lived through the noise of breaking news.

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Shiv Aroor – Avrodh: The Siege Within

Aroor has spent years around the armed forces – reporting, travelling, listening, writing books on them. Defence journalism, when done closely, gives you access to a language most civilians never hear: how operations are planned, how risk is calculated, how staying put is often as important as action. That language finds its way into Avrodh: The Siege Within. The show doesn’t over-explain itself. It trusts the details it shows on screen. Much of that comes from Aroor’s work, especially through India’s Most Fearless, which documented real missions with unusual clarity. It’s the difference between watching a mission and understanding how it pans out.

S. Hussain Zaidi – Bambai Meri Jaan

Long before “research consultant” became a visible credit, Zaidi’s reporting was already shaping Hindi cinema. A crime journalist who spent years tracking the Mumbai underworld, Zaidi built his work on access, from police files, gang insiders, court documents. His books mapped ecosystems. That’s why filmmakers keep returning to them. From Black Friday to Shootout at Wadala, his writing has powered some of the most enduring crime stories on screen. Even when he isn’t physically present in the filmmaking process, his reporting is. You can’t fake that level of detail. It comes from being there, asking the right questions, and staying long enough to hear uncomfortable answers.

Jigna Vora: Scoop

Jigna Vora’s story is different from the others on this list. She didn’t just report on crime but she became part of a crime story that gripped the country. A former crime reporter, Vora was accused in connection with the murder of journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, a case that spiralled into one of Mumbai’s most high-profile media trials. She spent years fighting the charges before being acquitted, eventually documenting her experience in her book Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison. That book became the foundation for Scoop, created by Hansal Mehta. What makes Scoop stand out is its point of view. This isn’t a crime story told from the outside but because of Vora it became a story told from within the system. The newsroom politics, the police briefings, the media frenzy, they all feel uncomfortably real because they come from lived experience.