On Tuesday, Bangalore-based writer-filmmaker Santosh Kumar RS held a press conference where he alleged the makers of the latest blockbuster Dhurandhar 2 of plagiarising the core idea of his script, demanding credits and an official response from director Aditya Dhar.
Addressing the media, Santosh RS spoke about her 12-year journey in the film industry, recalling a specific phase in 2023 when he came to Mumbai to pitch his story to Hindi film studios. He said, “I wanted to cast Aditya Roy Kapur for the film, but many suggested pitching the film to corporate studios, so I did. I had titled my script ‘D Saheb.’” However, despite pitching and mailing the script to many big studios, the filmmaker was met with rejection from all quarters.
The filmmaker also brought along all the proofs of his e-mail exchanges with said production companies and their representations, and his registration certification with SWA, where he registered his script in November 2023.
It was when Santosh had made plans to go back to Bangalore that someone named Santosh called him and told him Sanjay Dutt was interested in hearing the story. After taking all the details from the filmmaker, Santosh later informed him that Sanjay Dutt got busy with another project. Nearly 2 years later, even when he watched Dhurandhar (2025), he had no inkling that the sequel would contain elements from his script. It was only when Santosh watched Dhurandhar 2 that he realised his script was plagiarised.
Giving details of some of the ideas that were in his script, and alleging that they were copied in Dhurandhar 2, Santosh said, “In my script, the hero has a problem. It takes him 6 months to kill the villain and other people. That’s when the RAW agent says he is doing our job, and we need such a courageous guy.”
Santosh also took objection to how Aditya have a co-writer credit to his brother-in-law and Yami Gautam’s brother Ojas Gautam. Santosh additionally shared that while he has also filed a complaint with SWA, the procedure on their end has turned out to be very time-taking.
Santosh also revealed that he plans to take legal action on Aditya Dhar and Dhurandhar 2 makers for plagiarism. “Aditya Dhar has to accept that he has stolen my story,” he added.