Ram Gopal Varma says Dhurandhar has ‘kicked out South Indian movies,’ calls Ranveer Singh’s spy actioner a ‘template film’

Ram Gopal Varma talks about director Aditya Dhar's Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar. (Credit: IMDb, Facebook/@RGV)

Among the many fans director Aditya Dhar’s Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar has made ever since its release over three weeks ago, the most vocal is arguably veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma. Like a staunch admirer of the movie, RGV has been flooding social media with posts heaping praise on Dhurandhar while also commending Aditya for a job well done. Recently, the filmmaker went a step further, asserting that Ranveer Singh’s spy actioner has effectively dethroned South Indian cinema, proving that Bollywood is also capable of producing high-octane action films. He noted, however, that it remains to be seen whether the industry can capitalise on this success going forward.

“My first thought on Dhurandhar was that it has basically kicked out South Indian films. Although it’s yet to be seen, I’ll explain why I feel so. We are into hero elevation now. Except for the hero, no one else matters in a movie. We constantly use background score and make the audience worship the hero. Dhurandhar, however, does the exact opposite. It treats him like a character. He’s just one of the many characters. Many a time, I felt that Ranveer Singh had disappeared into the story and wasn’t leading it. On top of that, although he’s larger than life, so are every other character, including the villains,” he said during a conversation with Gulte Pro.

Revealing how he thinks Dhurandhar will affect the way pan-Indian films are imagined from now on, RGV pointed out that most big-ticket films feature templated action set pieces. “The biggest problem pan-India films, which currently come from the South, are going to face is that… all their action sequences are templated in a certain format, which Dhurandhar has broken with its realistic hardcore action. Here, nobody’s jumping in the air; one punch doesn’t send five people flying. This is the exact opposite of that; it (Dhurandhar’s fight) seems like it can really happen. After this, if we see a fight like the ones we do often, it will appear like a joke.”

Nonetheless, RGV confirmed that the Ranveer Singh starrer is still a “template film.” “There’s a hero who goes (to a place) for a good cause; then he gets into trouble; falls in love with the girl; then there is a villain; there are flashbacks; and there’s revenge. All of that is part of a traditional template. It’s not a different film. So, you can’t confuse this with the sudden success of The Kashmir Files (2022) or The Kerala Story (2023). Dhurandhar is a film that can be made by any commercial masala filmmaker. If you give the same story like how I narrated now, they can make it like a KGF 2. But Dhurandhar’s strength was its immersive storytelling. There wasn’t a single character the director was partial to. They received equal important respect. And the action set pieces were something you’ve never seen before.”