Anurag Kashyap applauds Aditya Dhar’s ‘courage, patience’ for making Dhurandhar, says backlash against critics a ‘coordinated attack’ | Bollywood News
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 13, 2026 02:33 PM IST
Anurag Kashyap was one of the many filmmakers from the Indian film industry who praised Dhurandhar upon its release while there was a small section that spoke about the divisive nature of the film. While he spoke about the two sequences that he had a “problem with”, he was largely supportive of the film. In a new interview with Sucharita Tyagi, Anurag spoke about Dhurandhar again and applauded Aditya Dhar’s “courage”. Talking about the severe backlash that many film critics faced after Dhurandhar, Anurag said that this was a “coordinated attack” and said that such things are not organic.
Calling the attack on critics “uncalled for”, Anurag said that he was one of the few people from the industry, who shared the statement from Film Critics Guild about the “targeted attacks, harassment, and hate directed toward film critics”. He said that he was also questioned about his praise for Dhurandhar and he explained, “I said I pointed out the problematic things as well. Jo cheez galat hai voh galat hai, jo sahi hai voh shi hai (What is wrong, it’s wrong, and what is right, is right). How I like something does not mean I will force my opinion on someone else.”
Anurag Kashyap calls backlash against Dhurandhar criticism a ‘coordinated attack’
He insisted that what one is getting out of the film is up to them. “I will not conceal the things that were problematic but I am seeing something else as well. As a filmmaker, I am seeing the courage. Somebody who has to fight through a system to do a certain thing and the belief in it when everybody backs out because the film is getting too long, putting in their own money, doing things,” he said.
Anurag said that as he watched the scene where Arjun Rampal’s character is torturing a spy, he thought that this must be quite difficult to shoot. “I know, as a filmmaker, how much time it takes. Any filmmaker would be like, ‘Let’s do this in VFX’. The patience and time to do it as a filmmaker and to be so precise. So for me, as a filmmaker, I am marveling at that,” he said.
Anurag mentioned that the attacks on critics were “all coordinated” and “not organic.” He also said in the same chat, “This backlash thing is a social media construct and a lot of it is not organic.”
What was the backlash against Dhurandhar criticsm?
After the release of Dhurandhar, the Film Critics Guild issued a statement where they said that they were “deeply concerned about the safety and well being of our colleagues from across the country. No professional should be subjected to personal vilification simply for doing their job.” Despite the criticism, Dhurandhar managed to earn Rs 1300 crore worldwide. The film’s sequel Dhurandhar The Revenge releases on March 19.
