Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has spoken out against the backlash film critics face from actors’ fan clubs over negative reviews, calling such social media attacks “coordinated” and describing the phenomenon as a “social media construct”.

In a conversation with film critic Sucharita Tyagi on her YouTube channel, Anurag talked about the trolling directed at critics who reviewed Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar unfavourably.

“This backlash thing is again a social media construct. There was a great article in The New Yorker about how fan clubs were created in the South to create heroes. A lot of it is not organic. I genuinely believe it is not organic,” Kashyap said.

“I will talk about a recent film Dhurandhar. How everyone was attacked is uncalled for. Somebody reached out to me and said you shared the Critics Guild post. From the industry, nobody shared. Par aapko Dhurandhar mein acha bhi laga bahut kuch. I said what I found problematic, and I said this too. Jo cheez galat hai wo galat hai. Mujhe kaisi lagi does not mean I am going to force my opinion on someone else. Tum kya dekh rahe ho film mein, woh tum dekh rahe ho. Jo main dekh raha hoon, woh main dekh raha hoon,” he said.

Dhurandhar received mixed reviews upon release, with some critics praising it while others criticised it, describing it as agenda-driven. Several critics reported being targeted by social media trolls following their negative reviews. The Film Critics Guild of India subsequently issued a statement defending critics and condemning the attacks.

“Ye jo coordinated attacks hote hain, ye coordinated hi hote hain, ye organic nahi hote. Organic can be 'I don't agree with you'. I can disagree with you, whatever it is. One of my cousins runs a place like this, where 300 people sit, and they get paid for this. His whole business is this,” he said.

Dhurandhar stars Ranveer Singh in the lead role, alongside Akshaye Khanna, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sanjay Dutt. The film was a major box office success, minting over Rs 1,300 crore worldwide.

A sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, is scheduled to release on March 19, and will clash with Yash’s Toxic at the box office.

Meanwhile, Kashyap is awaiting the belated Indian release of his film Kennedy. Starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, the film will premiere on ZEE5 on February 20.