‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, directed by Aditya Dhar, crossed the Rs 1000 crore mark on its third Sunday, becoming the first Bollywood film to reach the milestone and third Indian film to do so after ‘Pushpa 2’ and ‘Baahubali 2’. Despite its massive success, a section of viewers has criticised the film, labelling it as propaganda. Though, this criticism did not hamper the film’s appeal at the box office. Now actor and politician Ravi Kishan has strongly defended the film, calling such criticism unfair. He urged audiences to support the film, saying it has “revived the industry and brought out facts in cinematic brilliance”. He was quoted by Hindustan Times, “Calling it a propaganda film is very wrong! Actors from the South supported it openly, everyone should do that. A new trend has started of calling films propaganda, ek naya kabootar pakad liye hain log!” Ravi also drew a comparison between the franchise and the iconic ‘Sholay’. Speaking about its impact, he said the film is rooted in real incidents that are presented in a cinematic manner. “The writer picks topics from real news and incidents, and the team cinematically presents them on the screen. One should be happy that people have started going to the theatre. Bahut haalat kharab thi industry ki, Bhojpuri industry has almost shut down! This has come as a blessing for the industry, and lakhs of people earn their livelihood through cinema.”He further emphasised the importance of cinema reflecting reality and even revisiting history. “It’s important that cinema presents on screen what has and is happening in society. In fact, we need to correct our history as well by way of research, those pages that were torn away from our history! That truth needs to be brought in front of people.”Talking about his own career aspirations, Ravi added, “I know someone somewhere must be writing a Dhurandhar for me. What’s in fate will come to me; this was not in my account. Similarly, I am not in my favourite Gangs of Wasseypur, so I don’t have any FOMO of that! But, I will surely like to work with Aditya (Dhar) or Mr (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) Bhansali, like now I got to work with Karan Johar in Naagzilla. So, no regrets,” he says, adding that if he were part of the film, he would have happily taken up any role, though Ranveer Singh’s character Hazma would have been his top choice.The actor also credited the film’s success to its technical and creative strengths. He said it worked because of its “amazing BGM (background music), super editing, bang-on energy by actors and the director took great shots and spent a whopping RS 260 crores.”
