When you look up the definition of loyal, you’re going to find the character of Dhan Rana there. The character, who is Gabi Moseley’s right hand man on the NBC show Found, is complex, guarded, and quite often misunderstood.
Characters like that are often hard to bring to life, but Karan Oberoi, who plays Dhan seems to have no trouble doing just that. As viewers, we may know nothing about Dhan, but I will promise you that it doesn’t matter. Why? Because within the first few minutes of seeing him on the screen – you know that this character will change you.
He will define friendship in a different way for you.
He will make you think twice about the characters that you fall in love with.
And the characters you root for.
You can’t help but root for Dhan Rana. We need to give flowers where flowers are due and this man deserves all the flowers.
Sitting down to talk to Karan, I was excited. As a person that religiously watched Roswell, New Mexico, I was familiar Oberoi. Knowing who an actor is, well.. that always makes me nervous. The relief was that I didn’t have to turn on my camera, as we were just doing a voice recording.
Well, and I wasn’t going to lie, I had just rolled out of bed from a nap. The hair was nap hairing. We both laughed and made some small talk before I asked him about Dhan.
One thing that I have both loved and not understood about Dhan is his sense of loyalty to M&A above all. What does Gabi have on him? What did she change for him?
I asked, “Dhan’s sense of loyalty and how he’s committed to everyone at M&A has caused some issues in his life, especially with his husband and some with the team. That being said, why is it that you think he puts the team first, and do you think that will ever change?”
He jumped right in with an answer that made perfect sense, “No, I don’t think it’ll change. Dhan was an FBI guy who worked at the military. There’s aspects of that which never really leave you. One, I think, being loyalty. It’s just who he is. There’s things you can change, there’s things you can’t. For better or for worse, it’s going to be who he is and he’s going to go that route for all of his team as much as he can. It keeps him together. If he doesn’t solve these things or work with the cases, it’ll unravel him. Loyalty to his family is number one.”
I sighed and wondered if Dhan didn’t see that his loyalty to the team was a wall between him and his husband, Ethan. Then again, I wasn’t sure if it was just my perception and I wasn’t seeing their relationship for what it was.
And what it could be.
But, I found myself asking questions out of order, because the ending of this weeks episode sprung to the front of my mind.
Dhan has always been silently intimidating, but this week, at the very end of the episode, he made me rethink what I thought of Dhan. Mostly because he scared the crap out of me.
When he went to confront Sir at the prison, Dhan lost it. He was no longer the man that you felt would protect you without you knowing. He was now the man that would send me into a corner afraid and shaking. The scene literally made me fall out of my chair.
And I had to ask about it. I thought Dhan had lost his marbles.
“That’s NK’s genius. I was watching the season unfold, I’m like, wow, this guy’s pretty restrained. I think Dhan’s journey this season has been just to keep everything together, keep everyone together, keep the team together. We had the secret come out, we had a lot of things happen. I don’t think it was time for him to unravel, but then there’s always somebody, you put them in front of you, and you just don’t know what’s going to happen, and that happened to be Sir,” he said.
Nkechi Okoro Carroll – who created Found – is a genius. She’s taken Found and made sure that it’s appointment television by creating characters that you can’t miss seeing. She’s made you wonder if you’re actually seeing the story that you think that you are, or if you are getting caught up in what ifs and maybes. With Found, she’s established a storyline that will make you second guess everything that you know.
And part of that questioning is why it is that Dhan didn’t take care of Sir the moment he helped Gabi capture him and put him in the basement all those months ago.
He said, “You have to let Gabi make that choice. That was something that was with her past. Dhan just gave her the tools, gave her what she needed, and was like, ‘You have to make the choice. I hope you make this choice, because this man doesn’t deserve to be here.’ In the end, you have to let Gabi make that decision. Many things would be different if he wasn’t there. It’s just something that the choice that she made.”
While I don’t necessarily agree with that, I believe it as he says the words. He, after all knows Dhan better than any of us. And he would understand why it is that Dhan is softening towards Jamie.
Because if we’re being honest, that wasn’t something that I thought we (the viewer) would ever see. So I asked about it. Why is he learning to trust Jamie? What has Jamie done that makes Dhan not think the worst of him. Well, according to Oberei, “Trusting people has been something very hard for Dhan. You can see Gabi is the only one he really trusts. Gabi, Zeke, this M&A team become his family because he can trust them. He can rely on them too. That’s something from his past with the military, with the FBI, where he could trust. Also, Dhan’s character was held captive.”
He continued, “This is something that relates to Jamie. Dhan understands that. Prying a lot, he wants from Jamie to give those answers, and he’s being so reclusive about it. Dhan understands Jamie a lot more instinctually. Do we all want him to be the son? Absolutely. Who wouldn’t want that from Margaret? Dhan’s going to go through his route of finding information first before he can verify all these things.”
The thing is, Dhan seems to like to take the long route when figuring out things. He likes to take the road with the least amount of complications, but somehow finds every road to be filled with complications.
Maybe it’s those complications though that lead him to knowing – what feels like – every person underneath the sun. For a workaholic introvert, Dhan seems to be able to have a friend in every branch of law enforcement around the world. I laughed and said that Dhan socializes a lot.
“Yes, right? Dhan’s having a lot of parties at night with all these people.” he joked before getting serious. “I think that opens more up about Dhan. His connection is everywhere. He’s got links everywhere. The network that he has is huge. Being that he used to work for the government, I think he can always tap certain resources to get anything that he needs.”
Which leads me to what we’re all thinking – I want to know more about Dhan and Zeke. Little by little the storylines have opened up for them, but we still don’t know enough about them. As a viewer I want to understand their pain, heartache, and what caused them to be who they are now.
So will we ever get a chance to know them?
With a smile in his voice, he says, “Soon. I think the next three episodes, you’re going to get a very good introduction to Dhan’s past. A very, very good introduction. It’s going to be in your face. The things that he talked about in season one that are going to come to play, and in your face. You’re going to see it. It’s very impactful. It’s powerful. If we get that renewal, season three is going to be a insanely thrilling ride because Dhan’s stuff does hold a lot of stuff with the government and the military.”
My mind starts going at a million miles a minute, trying to figure out what I have forgotten from the first season that I may need to revisit. He continues, “Very interesting stuff. I think next season, we get into Zeke’s character, Dhan’s character, and just explore more. That’s the greatest thing about our show. There’s so much to explore already in every episode that comes out that you need seasons for each character, you know what I mean? Next season, hopefully, we get to do that with Dhan and Zeke.”
Who do I need to talk to about season three? Because as I sit here and write this, we all have no idea if we are getting a third season. And I mention that – all my disappointments with cancellations and wondering what will come next. Waiting to know if we’re getting a renewal is killing me (again don’t judge me, it’s the little things in life).
He says, “I feel sorry for everybody that’s waiting. We’re all there. I think the decision will be made when it’s done. We’re all waiting, but we’re all excited for what we have done already to do this with TV already. It’s been an amazing, amazing ride.”
And he’s not wrong. It has been an amazing ride. So lets not let it stop yet?
Found airs Thursdays on NBC.
