Bollywood actress Yami Gautam on Thursday criticised what she described as a growing culture of paid negativity in the Hindi film industry, saying the trend was harming films even before their release.
Her comments came a day ahead of the theatrical release of Dhurandhar, directed by her husband Aditya Dhar.
In a statement shared on social media, Gautam urged industry members to collectively resist practices that create artificial “hype” or orchestrate targeted criticism.
“This so-called trend of giving money, in the disguise of marketing a film, to ensure good ‘hype’ for a film is created or else ‘they’ will continuously write negative things (even before the film is released), until you pay ‘them’ money feels nothing but kind of extortion.”
Gautam said such mechanisms were enabling both amplification and hostility on demand. “Just because this arrangement is accessible to anyone—whether to ‘hype’ a film or spread negativity against another actor/a film—is a plague that is going to affect the future of our industry in a big way,” she said.
Calling the trend a “monster”, the actor warned that treating it as the “new normal” would have long-term consequences. She also drew a comparison with South Indian film industries, saying the practices were discouraged there because “the industry stands united on lot of fronts”.
“I urge our esteemed producers, directors & actors to come together in order to arrest this termite of a culture at this stage itself & discourage it,” she wrote.
Expressing concern that audiences were being influenced in advance, she said: “Lets not kill the joy of film making & presenting it to the world & letting the audience decide what they feel. We need to protect our industry environment.”
Dhurandhar, a spy-action thriller starring Ranveer Singh alongside Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, R. Madhavan and Arjun Rampal, releases 5 December.
The film has collected Rs 4.24 crore gross in advance bookings, including block bookings, as per industry data-tracking portal Sacnilk. Actual ticket sales stood at 58,605 across 3,305 shows, contributing Rs 2.58 crore gross.
Sacnilk has projected an opening day figure of Rs 15 crore for the film.
Dhurandhar has also faced online backlash after a section of viewers called for a boycott after Ranveer’s appearance at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2025. Ranveer’s mimicry of the Daivas from Kantara: Chapter 1 and his reference to the Chamundi Daiva as a “female ghost” irked several netizens.