Randeep Hooda Joins Anil Sharma's Dubai Oil Saga

Randeep Hooda and Celina Jaitly have reportedly joined Arjun Naga, a period drama directed by Anil Sharma about Dubai's 1960s oil rush. The film stars Utkarsh Sharma, features Arjun Rampal as the antagonist and is planned as four parts. The Times of India reported the casting on Oct. 18, citing Mid-Day.

What is reported

According to the Times of India, Hooda and Jaitly have been added to an ensemble that already has Utkarsh Sharma, the director's son, in the lead and Arjun Rampal opposing him. The first part is being filmed at Mumbai's Film City, and production is expected to continue into 2027. The makers have not said which characters the two new actors play.

Sharma told Mid-Day, as quoted by the Times of India, "Arjun Naga is about Dubai's oil rush in the 1960s. We are making the film in four parts, and it will have 10-12 top actors in pivotal roles spread across these instalments. The title will change with each part. We will shoot in Mumbai, Rajasthan, other parts of India, Dubai, and other international cities."

The setting

The report says the story opens in the early 1960s, when Dubai was a small trading and fishing centre. It traces events leading up to the discovery of oil in the Fateh field in 1966 and the changes that followed. The film will reportedly use the 1963 oil exploration concession granted to Continental Oil Company and the years of drilling before the discovery as its historical backdrop.

The protagonist, played by Utkarsh Sharma, is expected to rise from extreme poverty to become one of the wealthiest men in Dubai. The Times of India stresses that the principal characters and their journeys are fictional, even though the film draws on a real period.

Four parts, four titles

Few Hindi productions have been announced in four instalments. The structure lets an ensemble of 10 to 12 leading actors appear across the saga, as Sharma described it. Each instalment is said to have its own title. The first part is aiming to finish shooting by March 2027, according to the report. No release dates or final titles have been announced for any of the four parts.

Why the casting matters

Randeep Hooda has been a regular in period and crime dramas, and adding him to a saga of this size signals the makers' intent to build a large cast. Anil Sharma is known for large-scale Hindi films, and the project places his son in the lead. Those are background points and not claims made in the report.

The scale, a four-part film spread over multiple years of production, also carries commercial risk. A saga that depends on audiences returning for later chapters needs the first part to land, and no first-look material has been mentioned in the coverage.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm the Hooda and Jaitly casting through an official statement, because the report is based on Mid-Day and the makers have not confirmed it in anything we found. We did not locate the original Mid-Day article. We could not confirm the roles, release dates, the final titles or the budget. The historical details, including the 1963 concession and the 1966 discovery, are described by the film's reported plot and not verified here as a source on Dubai's history.

Sources

*Cover photo: Bollywood Hungama, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Randeep_Hooda_snapped_at_Zee_Cine_Awards_2024.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Randeep_Hooda_snapped_at_Zee_Cine_Awards_2024.jpg)* (CC BY 3.0).*