Sudhir Mishra defends Dhurandhar against claims of propaganda film, calls Aditya Dhar "extremely skilled"

Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh in the titular role, is currently the talk of the town. The film is creating havoc at the box office and churning some incredible numbers, but at the same time, there is a whole controversy going on about how the film is sheer propaganda. Netizens are debating the intent of the film and wondering why films about graver situations have not been made. Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra recently engaged in a conversation with a netizen on X (formerly known as Twitter) and gave a very calculated reply to what the netizen had to say. 

A tweet went viral on the popular social media site X, where a netizen wrote, "DOES BOLLYWOOD HAVE THE COURAGE TO MAKE A FILM ON UNNAO: INDIA'S SHAME????? Will the producer/ director of #Dhurandhar and my friend Vivek Agnihotri have the guts to make a film on the dastardly Unnao rape case which manifests the true face of the BJP? Will they do a film on Manipur? Will they expose the BJP's rotten political character and corruption??? Will they have the courage to fight for human rights and sexuality exploited women??? Or will these BJP cheerleaders masquerading as patriotic heroes produce sequel after sequel of cheesy films to inflame nationalistic passions and fill their coffers??? Your guess is as good as mine."

The netizen further added another tweet to the same thread, writing that he came across a clip of journalist Arnab Goswami talking about similar points that he had raised in his prior tweet, about filmmakers not taking a stand and making films about the Unnao victim.

Talking about Goswami's clip in the tweet, the netizen wrote that it "raises this same point I make in my tweet: Does Aditya Dhar and Vivek Agnihotri have the guts to make a film on #Unnao victim??? If India's journalists start calling out the madness prevailing in our country, there is still some hope. We will survive this. Good going Arnab. That's the man I knew once. I hope it lasts. Good luck."

Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra gave a very controlled and balanced reply to the tweet. In the tweet not only did he talk about how his filmmaking sensibilities are very different than that of Aditya Dhar's, but at the same time also praised Dhar's latest directorial ventures, 'Dhurandhar.' 

Mishra wrote, "One of us has the guts . There is a film . You'll see it soon . Also please stop lumping us all under one brand , called Bollywood. We belong to the Indian Film Industry and we are all different. By the way Dhurandhar is a well made film . Aditya Dhar is extremely skilled . The acting is terrific . The most difficult thing in film making is a Directors ability to make us , the audience " smell the place "and Aditya Dhar with the help of his brilliant Cinematographer and Production Designer manage to do just that . The casting , including the minor parts is bang on . I am of course, a filmmaker, from another school."

There were several comments in the reply section of Mishra's tweet about how Dhurandhar is a propaganda film which has been made with evil intent. 

Directed by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar will also have a second part, which will be released on March 19, 2026. The first part of the film featured Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal and R Madhavan in pivotal roles.