Besides its gigantic box office success and pop cultural impact, Dhurandhar also created a lot of discourse for the strong backlash its critics received on social media. During a recent interview, Anurag Kashyap, who is gearing for the much-awaited OTT premiere of his 2023 film Kennedy, called out the said attacks on film critics, calling it ‘coordinated.’
Speaking to Sucharita Tyagi, Anurag Kashyap was addressing the subject of fan clubs in South Indian film industries when he spoke about Dhurandhar. “How everyone was attacked is uncalled for. All these attacks are coordinated and not organic. 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.”
Kashyap also recalled a conversation about him sharing the Film Critics Guild’s social media post condemning the attack on the film critics, adding, “They said, ‘nobody shared from industry. But you also liked a lot in Dhurandhar.’ I said what I found problematic, and I said this too. What is wrong is wrong.”
In a long post on Letterboxd, the Kennedy filmmaker had earlier praised Dhurandhar and director Aditya Dhar’s conviction in his use of political themes, while also pointing out his handful of issues with the film. "I have known Aditya Dhar since his national award film film Boond. It’s his politics. Genuine politics," he had written.
Anurag’s previous film was Nishaanchi, which released in 2025 in two parts. While the first part arrived in theatres in September, the second instalment had a direct-to-OTT premiere in November.
Meanwhile, Kennedy will begin streaming on ZEE5 on February 20. The psychological thriller stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in the lead.
