The audience is yet to get over ‘Dhurandhar’ which released in December, and ‘Dhurandhar 2’ has hit everyone in the face. The second part surpassed the collections of the first part and became the first Bollywood film to cross the Rs 1,000-crore nett in India.
At the worldwide box office, the film has crossed Rs 1,300 crore. While most celebrities from South have praised the film, netizens are questioning the silence of celebrities from the Hindi film industry. Amidst all the hype, director Kunal Kohli reveals how most people thought the film would lose steam on Monday after its first weekend and would eventually see a dip in numbers. Durandar 2 reviewEven when the industry does not support the film, the film still works,” Kohli said during a conversation with Screen.
No one supports Durandar. The biggest directors I spoke to on the phone said, “Mon ko beth 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 skepticism despite its success.
“No one supported Border 2. In the second week mei thodabaith gayi. Rs 300 crore plus has been done! What are you saying! It is a huge success,” he said.
End of discussion. “It doesn’t matter if the industry supports you or not,” Kohli added.Commenting on his own journey, Kohli said that the mentality within the industry has not evolved much since the release of his film Hum Tum. He recalls how producer Aditya Chopra advised him to skip the preview show. “It was exactly the same. Adlabs was one of the few cinema complexes at the time and they had a preview show on Thursday. Hum Tum had a preview show on Thursday night.
Adi (Aditya Chopra, producer) told me not to go because the industry people who were going wouldn’t get the film.However, Kohli chose to attend the show to gauge the reactions first-hand, but was left disappointed. “I decided on it, and people there didn’t like the film. I was so depressed that I called Adi. He said, ‘I have asked you not to go because I know this is not their kind of film.'” He said frankly, “99% of people in the industry don’t want you to succeed.”Despite the lukewarm industry response, Hum Tum, starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji, became a commercial success and an iconic romantic comedy. Kohli pointed to a turning point when he was the veteran director
Rakesh Roshan
I called him personally to congratulate him. “It took a while for the film to settle and be accepted. On Monday at 1pm, Adi, Rani and I were sitting in the office, still wondering whether it would be postponed or postponed on Monday. Rakesh Roshan sir called me and said, ‘Kunal, your film is in the house for a 12.30pm showing on Monday in Indore!’ The biggest blockbusters have failed to do this.
Congratulations, your film has been a huge success. I said: Okay. Thank you sir.
“I put the phone down and told Uday. He said, ‘I still have not received reports from Indore, but Rakesh ji has got them.’”Kohli also noted how Roshan has been supportive despite the poor performance of his previous film Mujhse Dosti Karoge!
Hrithik Roshan
. “There are people like Rakesh ji who will support you in a new film. That’s why he is a great film director.
Because he took it upon himself to call a young film director to congratulate him. He could have called Yash (Chopra, the producer) ji, Adi, or Saif, but he called me, the director. “There are one or two out of every 100 people like that, but fortunately there are one or two,” Kohli said with a laugh.Kohli questioned whether the industry’s public praise for Dhurandhar was genuine or strategic, and dismissed the idea of tit-for-tat arguments. “There’s a little scratch on my back. Because if you let someone scratch your back, they’ll probably stab you in the back,” he said, adding a sharp edge to his remarks.
