Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on Thursday said the Hindi film industry often chooses to ignore pathbreaking films as they make people within the system uncomfortable by setting higher creative standards.
In a post on X, Varma praised the Ranveer Singh-starrer espionage drama Dhurandhar, saying films of such scale and impact are seen as a threat by industry insiders.
“Whenever a path breaking and monstrous hit like #dhurandhar comes , the industry people will wish to ignore it because they will feel threatened by it due to their inability to match it’s standards ..So they will think of it as a nightmare, which will vanish when they wake up in their own films,” Varma wrote on his X handle.
Directed by Aditya Dhar of Uri: The Surgical Strike fame, Dhurandhar is set in Karachi’s Lyari town. Varma, who has directed films such as Satya, Rangeela and Kaun, also criticised the ongoing trend of pan-Indian films, saying many of them are based on outdated storytelling assumptions.
“This is even more true of all the so called pan india biggies which are right now under various stages of production.. They were all written and mounted, modelled on the films made before #dhurandhar which is the exact opposite of what they all believed will work.. what’s even more worrisome is that #dhurandhar apart from being a omega hit also is the most discussed film since the last 50 years (sic),” he said.
Varma further said filmmakers who continue to depend on familiar commercial templates involving heavy visual effects, expensive sets, item songs and hero-centric narratives would face consequences for their creative stagnation.
According to him, such filmmakers will be “crucified” in their “self created dungeon of masala films”.
Praising Dhar, Varma said, “More than anything else @AdityaDharFilms is forcing the industry people to look at their own films in the mirror, in comparison to the beautiful looking #dhurandhar.”
Dhurandhar also stars Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sara Arjun and Soumya Tandon. The film has emerged as a major box office success, earning over Rs 800 crore worldwide since its release on 5 December.