The audience was still not over ‘Dhurandhar’ which released in December and ‘Dhurandhar 2’ hit everyone in the face. The sequel surpassed the collections of the first part and became the first Bollywood film to cross Rs 1000 crore net in India. At the worldwide box office, the film has crossed Rs 1300 crore. While most celebs from the south have praised the film, netizens are questioning the silence of celebs from the Hindi film industry. Amidst all the noise, director Kunal Kohli reveals how most people thought that the film will lose steam on Monday after the first weekend and eventually see a decline in numbers. Dhurandhar 2 ReviewKohli said during a chat with Screen, “Even when the industry doesn’t support a film, the film still works. Nobody supported Dhurandhar. The biggest directors I spoke to phone, they said, ‘Monday ko baith jayegi.‘ Monday ko aur chal gayi,” he said, highlighting how the film defied expectations. He went on to draw parallels with Anurag Singh’s Border 2, starring Sunny Deol, which also faced scepticism despite its success. “Nobody supported Border 2. People said second week mei thoda baith gayi. It’s done Rs 300 crore plus! What are you saying! That’s a blockbuster. End of discussion. It doesn’t matter if the industry supports you or not,” Kohli added.Reflecting on his own journey, Kohli said the mindset within the industry hasn’t evolved much since the release of his film Hum Tum. He recalled how producer Aditya Chopra had advised him to skip a preview screening. “It was exactly the same. Adlabs was one of the few multiplexes then and they had a Thursday preview show. Hum Tum had a preview show on Thursday night. Adi (Aditya Chopra, producer) told me not to go because the industry people going for it wouldn’t get the film,” he shared.However, Kohli chose to attend the screening to gauge reactions firsthand, only to be disheartened. “I went for it, and the people there didn’t like the film. I was so depressed I called up Adi. He said, ‘I asked you to not go because I know it’s not their type of film.’ So, 99% of the people in the industry don’t want you to succeed,” he said candidly.Despite the lukewarm industry response, Hum Tum, starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji, went on to become both a commercial success and a defining romantic comedy. Kohli recalled a turning point when veteran filmmaker Rakesh Roshan personally called to congratulate him. “It took time for the film to settle down and get accepted. On Monday at 1 pm, Adi, I, and Rani were sitting in the office, still wondering if it’s going to drop or hold on Monday. Mr. Rakesh Roshan called me and said, ‘Kunal, your film is houseful in the 12:30 pm show on Monday in Indore! The biggest of big films fail to do that. Congratulations, your film is a big hit.’ I said, ‘Okay. Thank you, sir.’ I put the phone down and told Adi. He said, ‘I still haven’t gotten reports from Indore, but Rakesh ji has,’” he recounted.Kohli also noted how Roshan extended support despite the underperformance of his earlier film Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, which starred Hrithik Roshan. “There are people like Rakesh ji who’d support you, a new film. That’s why he’s such a big filmmaker. Because it took on himself to call up a young filmmaker to congratulate him. He could’ve called up Yash (Chopra, producer) ji, Adi, or Saif, but he called me, the filmmaker. There are one or two out of 100 people like that, but thankfully there are those one or two,” Kohli said with a laugh.Questioning whether the industry’s public praise for Dhurandhar is genuine or strategic, Kohli dismissed the idea of mutual back-scratching. “There’s very little scratch my back. Because if you let someone scratch your back, they’d probably stab you in the back,” he remarked, adding a sharp edge to his observations.
