Even as Dhurandhar 2 has now emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film at domestic box office, there still is a lot of chatter about not many industry members praising the film or publicly supporting it on social media. During a recent interview, Hum Tum filmmaker Kunal Kohli criticised the film industry as a whole for not supporting Dhurandhar 2, while also recounting his personal experiences on similar grounds.
Speaking to Screen, Kunal said, “Even when the industry doesn’t support a film, the film still works. Nobody supported Dhurandhar. The biggest directors I spoke to said, 'the collections will fall on Monday.' But collections only grew! About Border 2, people said 'the collections dipped in second week' It’s done Rs 300 crore plus! What are you saying! That’s a blockbuster. End of discussion. It doesn’t matter if the industry supports you or not.”
Kunal Kohli then spoke about how his 2004 hit Hum Tum too didn’t see much support from most industry folks. He recalled, “Hum Tum had a preview show on Thursday night. I went for it, and the people there didn’t like the film. I was so depressed I called up Aditya Chopra. He said, ‘I asked you to not go because I know it’s not their type of film.’ So, 99% of the people in the industry don’t want you to succeed.”
At the same time, Kunal Kohli also acknowledged receiving support from Rakesh Roshan. “That’s why he’s such a big filmmaker. Because it took on himself to call up a young filmmaker to congratulate him. He could’ve called up Yash (Chopra, producer) ji, Adi, or Saif, but he called me, the filmmaker. There are one or two out of 100 people like that, but thankfully they are there,” he said.
Kunal Kohli, who made his debut with 2002 film Mujhse Dosti Karoge, last directed the 2025 film Bobby aur Rishi Ki Love Story.