- Aditya Dhar faced propaganda allegations for films including Uri and Dhurandhar series
- Hrithik Roshan publicly disagreed with Dhurandhar's political stance
- Dhar stated film release dates are decided by producers, not political events
Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar was no stranger to propaganda allegations. From his debut film Uri: The Surgical Strike to Dhurandhar and now Dhurandhar 2, the director has always been targeted by detractors over the films' politics.
Hrithik Roshan is the only Bollywood actor so far to publicly claim that he "disagreed" with the politics of Dhurandhar—despite the film emerging as the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time.
A day ahead of Dhurandhar 2 release, Aditya Dhar's old interview with film critic Rajeev Masand went viral, where he addressed "propaganda" claims for his debut feature Uri: The Surgical Strike.
Rajeev Masand asked Aditya Dhar at the time about the film's strategic release during election season and its alleged glorification of the ruling government.
To this, Aditya Dhar replied: "See, two things. One is that the date is decided by the producer, keeping the business and economics of films in mind. It's not decided according to what—like the elections are happening or what is happening or what party is fighting or not."
He also argued that as a filmmaker, he tried to narrate events chronologically and that his film showed a "balanced" perspective.
Some more stories and anecdotes from #UriTheSurgicalStrike !
— Aditya Dhar (@AdityaDharFilms) February 3, 2019
Hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you @RajeevMasand for having me over! 🙏🇮🇳
@vickykaushal09 @yamigautam @RonnieScrewvala @soniakanwar22 @RSVPMovies https://t.co/ZqzvSJ3wvO
"Secondly, when you see the film—and most of these people who were calling it propaganda—when they saw the film, they actually realized it's not; it's a very balanced perspective. Because the whole point is, I'm chronologically telling you what happened in those 10-11 days. And if the decision was taken by the current government, how can I negate that? How can I bypass that? I have to show it—it was taken by the current government. So, keeping that in mind, I had to keep a very balanced perspective. Now, if somebody feels it's propaganda, then maybe that in their head, they have already decided," Aditya Dhar said at the time.
Naya Bharat and Aditya Dhar
Asked about the concept of Naya Bharat that the film promoted, Aditya Dhar cited his own lived experiences of growing up in Kashmir.
"See, this Naya Bharat thing came from a point that me being a Kashmiri, I have heard about terrorism ever since I was a small baby. And I was someone who wanted to get into the army but couldn't. And keeping both perspectives in mind, I realized this is the first time we actually took the fight to the enemy—and it has never [happened before]," Dhar replied.
About Uri: The Surgical Strike
Headlined by Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam, and Kirti Kulhari, Uri: The Surgical Strike became a box office blockbuster and won multiple National Awards.
The film was based on the retaliation by the Indian army for the 2016 Uri attack, killing 19 soldiers.
Also Read | Aditya Dhar's First Film With Fawad Khan Was Shelved, He Made It Later With Yami Gautam
