Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar franchise has achieved what political commentators and cultural critics often fail to understand — audiences eventually decide for themselves.
The films were attacked in Pakistan and by sections within India as BJP propaganda, accused of pushing a nationalist narrative, distorting history and reducing geopolitics to cinematic spectacle.
YouTuber Dhruv Rathee called the films sophisticated political propaganda, while journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani went further, describing Dhurandhar as part of a wider BJP-RSS cultural project and arguing that it carried anti-Muslim undertones. Yet while critics debated intent, viewers kept watching.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge premiered internationally on Netflix on May 14 and quickly climbed to the top of Netflix Pakistan trends despite never getting a theatrical release there.
The excitement was captured by Pakistani content creator Maviya Umer Farooqui, who said viewers in Pakistan had waited for the midnight drop and were watching together. He also claimed Netflix servers briefly struggled under heavy traffic, though that remains unverified. What is beyond dispute is the curiosity.
Pakistanis were not asking whether the film was propaganda. They were asking when it would drop. The Dhurandhar films had already built an audience across the border through pirated circulation despite not releasing theatrically in Pakistan and Gulf Arab states. The OTT debut merely legitimised an existing craze.
Ironically, while Pakistan is already streaming the international Netflix version, Indian viewers will get the extended Raw & Undekha cut on JioHotstar with a digital premiere on June 4 and wider streaming from June 5.
The reply that existed before the interval
Meanwhile came Mera Lyari – projected by some as Pakistan’s cinematic reply to Dhurandhar. It reportedly exited after selling just 22 tickets.
Twenty-two. That is less a box-office figure and more attendance at a medium-sized family get-together.
The contrast writes itself. One film was unavailable in Pakistan theatres but travelled through piracy, OTT and word of mouth to become a talking point across the border. The other had the home turf advantage and still struggled to attract a section of viewers.
Audiences vote with remotes now
Cinema viewers do not pass ideological resolutions. They watch what interests them. Dhurandhar may continue to be attacked as propaganda. Critics are entitled to that view. But the Pakistani audience appears to have exercised another right – curiosity.
And while Pakistan’s supposed answer to Dhurandhar vanished after selling 22 tickets, the original is preparing for yet another innings when it drops for Indian viewers on OTT in early June.
For a film repeatedly dismissed as propaganda, Dhurandhar appears to have achieved something unusual – it drew audiences across borders that politics could not.
