Earlier, we reported about Dude director Keerthiswaran and actor Pradeep Ranganathan facing flak for the latter's character in the film. At one point in the film, Pradeep's character Agan tells Mamitha Baiju's Kural "Why are you sitting in a position usually seen in a pornographic movie?" The scene courted criticism from the audience, who questioned its relevance in the larger story and called it vulgar and offensive.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, director Keerthiswaran opened up about the criticism for the film. The filmmaker said that he realised that it is likely to be a sensitive material at the scripting phase itself. "Some actors may not have accepted it, so the script had to be heroic for the lead character... but I don't mean in a commercial, action-fuelled manner," Keerthiswaran shared.

He went on to discuss a crucial scene in the film that proved a counterpoint to the aforementioned criticism. "In the interval scene when Agan announces that he doesn't consider the sacrifice that he makes for Kural to be vulgar in any capacity, it becomes a hero's journey," the filmmaker explained.

He also revealed that his star Pradeep understood what he was aiming for in the film, hence it did not take "much convincing" from his part to get the actor onboard for it. The filmmaker also revealed that he found Pradeep's character to be "noble" and that the actor immediately signed up for the film when he said the same thing to him. Dude marked a third consecutive 100-crore grosser in Pradeep Ranganathan's career. The film is streaming on Netflix.