Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma recently spoke about the inspiration behind the crime action film ‘Dhurandhar,’ directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh, which emerged as one of the biggest Hindi hits of 2025. Many movie lovers noticed similarities between the film’s narrative style and some of Ram Gopal Varma’s cult crime films. In particular, audiences pointed out similarities with ‘Satya’ and ‘Company’ that are two films that shaped the portrayal of the Mumbai underworld in Hindi cinema.During a conversation with DNA India, RGV shared his thoughts on how filmmakers often draw inspiration from earlier works.
RGV on how filmmakers get inspired
According to Ram Gopal Varma, it is natural for filmmakers to be influenced by films they admire.Ram Gopal Varma said, “See, whether Aditya Dhar did it consciously or not, eventually, all filmmakers will go back to something they’ve seen, or they got inspired by, and they’re bound to be influenced.”The filmmaker noted that such influences are not unusual. He added that many iconic films in cinema history were themselves inspired by earlier classics.This creative process, he said, allows filmmakers to reinterpret familiar ideas in new ways.
Ram Gopal Varma admits his own inspirations
During the conversation, Ram Gopal Varma also revealed that several of his own films were influenced by other well-known movies.Ram Gopal Varma said, “For me, Shiva was inspired by Bruce Lee’s Return of the Dragon and Sunny Deol’s Arjun. Satya was a bit of The Godfather and The Goodfellas. So likewise, when I spoke to Aditya, he told me, ‘I was mainly influenced by Satya and Company, and then I mixed them, and put some patriotism’. That was his first idea.”
RGV calls Dhurandhar a ‘game changer’
Ram Gopal Varma also praised ‘Dhurandhar’ for its impact on the film industry. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the filmmaker recently described the movie as a pathbreaking success. He wrote, “Whenever a pathbreaking and monstrous hit like #dhurandhar comes, the industry people will wish to ignore it because they will feel threatened by it due to their inability to match its standards.”Ram Gopal Varma further commented on how the film could challenge existing filmmaking trends. He added, “So they will think of it as a nightmare, which will vanish when they wake up in their own films. This is even more true of all the so-called pan-India biggies, which are right now under various stages of production.” Ram Gopal Varma continued to praise the film in his posts, stating, “To that extent #dhurandhar will actually be like a HORROR film for all those makers who believed in the earlier template.” In another post, he added, “#Dhurandhar will be like a HORROR FILM for all those FILM MAKERS who do not have the ability to make a film with such BRILLIANCE, INTELLIGENCE, INTEGRITY, and CRAFT.”Following the success of ‘Dhurandhar’, the makers are now preparing to release its sequel, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ scheduled on March 19, while paid preview screenings are planned for March 19.
