From ‘Dushman’ to ‘Sangharsh’: Ashutosh Rana’s scariest roles that still haunt us

In Tanuja Chandra's 'Dushman,' Ashutosh Rana made us really shudder at the thoughts of evil. Gokul Pandit, the psychopathic woman killer, is one of Hindi cinema's most disturbing characters that displays spontaneous madness and the gift for the ghoulish. It is no accident that Ashutosh is cast opposite Kajol and Sanjay Dutt. Even winning the 1999 Filmfare Award for Best Villain only solidified Rana as one of a long roster of effective "bad guys" in Bollywood. Even today, with the movie so long behind us, we remember Gokul Pandit's creepy grin that peeks from the cracks in his voice.

In another collaboration with Tanuja Chandra, Ashutosh Rana portrayed Lajja Shankar Pandey, an extreme fanatic of religion who abducts children to sacrifice them. The performance in Sangharsh is unsettling not simply because of the violence but also because of the monstrous conviction with which Rana acts. The film, starring Preity Zinta and Akshay Kumar, highlighted his power of making horror feel human, not otherworldly—the evil in the film crawled under your skin and remained there long after the credits had finished rolling.

In Badal, going from crazy to authoritative, Rana's performance as DIG Jai Singh Rana revealed another layer of his cinematic menace. As a corrupt and violent police officer who behaved recklessly with his power, his smoldering rage on-screen, literally and figuratively, made him the perfect foil for Bobby Deol as the rebellious protagonist, who was pushing against Rana. Directed by Raj Kanwar, the film also starred Rani Mukerji and Mayuri Kango and drove home the point that Ashutosh did not need to be mad to be terrifying—quiet cruelty is equally deadly.

In Awarapan, Ashutosh Rana stepped into the shoes of Bharat Daulat Malik, a cold-blooded killer whose moral void made him one of the film's most fearsome representations of evil. As the darker and gloomier figure opposite the brooding presence of Emraan Hashmi, Rana emerged with an underlying brutality and fearsome authority. His performance provided an emotional weight to an action film that didn't primarily revolve around emotional experiences and showed yet again his ability to make an unoriginal villain consistent and even frighteningly memorable.

In Vikram Bhatt's supernatural thriller 'Raaz,' Rana's performance was as a mysterious figure, the eerie Professor Agni Swaroop, whose discombobulating calmness and unexplainable strangeness contributed to audience unease. Across the screen from Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea, and Malini Sharma, he added a psychological perspective to the film's horror schtick. Even with no intention of being the film's primary villain, Rana's unsettling and cryptic performance contributed to the film's sense of terror and was memorable in a way the other characters were not.

Rana’s role as Tejeshwar Singhal, a shrewd and manipulative politician in Ab Ke Baras, showcased his ability to play grey-shaded characters who hide darkness behind charm and power. Directed by Raj Kanwar and starring Amrita Rao and Arya Babbar, this film demonstrated that Rana didn’t always need blood and madness to terrify; sometimes, his villainy lay in his intelligence and quiet authority.