Director Aditya Dhar's film Dhurandhar: The Revenge is already on its march to becoming a major hit in the box office, with initial figures reportedly crossing 250 crore. Meanwhile, there is much discourse about the politics of the film, with many calling it out for pandering to the right-wing and its ideologies, as well as PM Narendra Modi.
In the midst of all the propaganda allegations against its makers, writer-director Ranjith Shankar shared an interesting point about Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar sequel, starring Ranveer Singh. Taking to Facebook, the Punyalan Agarbattis and Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam filmmaker wrote, "Dhurandhar 2. Entire theater clapped for the demonetisation scene. First time in Kerala maybe!" In a different post, the filmmaker wrote, "Dhurandhar has redefined Indian commercial movie making for good."
Under Ranjith Shankar's post, a user commented that the mass appeal and reception for the film in Kerala is "a sweet revenge by Aditya Dhar," claiming that theatres in the state did not provide the director's 2019 film Uri: The Surgical Strike with screens. This is not a new claim; there was some conversation about the limited screen count for Uri online and in media at the time. Some attributed it to the state's government and left-leaning mindset at the time opposing a film with nationalist themes. That said, it is worth noting that regional releases tend to dominate the box office in Kerala, negatively affecting Hindi films without any 'superstar' draw. Vicky Kaushal, the lead actor of Uri, was not that big a star in Kerala back then.
Coming back to Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the trend that Ranjith Shankar noted does not apply only to Kerala. The alleged pro-BJP scenes in the film elicited big applause from audiences in multiple shows at theatres in Tamil Nadu as well.
