Famous filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has yet again stirred the pot, this time drawing a stark contrast between the frailty of the “human” in ‘Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge’ and the “expressionless” superheroism found in high-octane spectacles like ‘War 2’.While RGV stopped short of being nominated Hrithik Roshan and Jr. NTR directly starring, the criticism of ‘pan-Indian hero templates’ that feel no pain has sparked a great deal of debate about the evolution of the Indian action hero.
Ram Gopal Varma slams ‘War 2’ while praising ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’
Although in an interview with Faridoon Shahryar, Ram Gopal Varma shared that Ranveer SinghHamza/Jaskirat is the protagonist, he does a lot of bad things. The filmmaker has praised it Aditya Dhar for showing multiple shades of the main character.He said: “If you look at it, Hamza has done as many bad things as the so-called villains in the film. You’re taking the view, ‘We’re Indians, and they’re Pakistanis.’ But if you consider all of us human beings, everyone’s going to be trapped in a situation.”In the same interview, he talked about ‘War 2’ without mentioning the title. He mentioned that it is a big budget film directed by two actors. Netizens were quick to connect the dots and film Hrithik Roshan and Jr. NTR’s ‘War 2’ was said to belong to YRF Spy Universe.RGV said, “Recently, not to mention the name of the film, two big stars are fighting in a big budget film, and I don’t see any expressions on their faces. This guy punches, but it doesn’t matter because they are heroes; they are supermen.”RGV added, “They don’t seem to feel any pain like a normal human would because they want to protect their star image for their fans or whatever the reasons are.”Comparing Singh and Arjun Rampal’s fight sequence in ‘Dhurandhar 2’, RGV added, “Toward the end when Major Iqbal stabs Hamza, I’ve never seen the pain as real as I did on Ranveer Singh’s face. The last time I saw that was Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Body of Lies’.”
Hero of Ram Gopal Varma
In the same interview, Ram Gopal Varma shared that a person who can “bleed, feel pain and cry” can be a greater hero than the “template pan-Indian heroes”.Calling the films’ poor plot, he said, “The story is very clichéd, a hero working for a great cause for his country, sacrificing everything. There are many such films being made.”Ram Gopal Varma added that Aditya Dhar treated the characters in his films with dignity and humanity. He said: “None of them look larger than life. But they feel larger than life. There’s no artificial character building. They are gray.”
More about ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’
The movie directed by Aditya Dhar has crossed 530 crores in India so far. The film is an emotional ride from start to finish. Aditya also included a post-credits scene in the espionage thriller. RGV ‘Dhurandhar 2’ has been appreciated. The filmmaker continues to post how much he liked director Aditya Dhar’s way of telling stories. So much so that in his post on Monday, he announced his next film, titled Syndicate, and dedicated it to his “new guru” Aditya. It starred Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi and others. Sara Arjunthe film opened in theaters on March 19, 2026.
