5 min readMumbaiApr 14, 2026 08:20 AM IST
Aditya Dhar’s 2025 spy thriller Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh, may have become the highest grossing Hindi film ever at the domestic box office, only to be dethroned by its sequel, Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, last month. Both the films received a lot of love and shoutout on social media, including from the film industry. But Kunal Kohli, filmmaker best known for Hum Tum (2004) and Fanaa (2006), has claimed the film industry was secretly hoping for the downfall of Dhurandhar.
“Even when the industry doesn’t support a film, the film still works. Nobody supported Dhurandhar. The biggest directors I spoke to phone, they said, ‘Monday ko baith jayegi.‘ Monday ko aur chal gayi,” says Kohli on SCREEN Spotlight. He added that it was the same case with Anurag Singh’s period war drama Border 2, starring Sunny Deol, earlier this year. “Nobody supported Border 2. People said second week mei thoda baith gayi. It’s done Rs 300 crore plus! What are you saying! That’s a blockbuster. End of discussion. It doesn’t matter if the industry supports you or not,” says Kohli.
The filmmaker believes the situation hasn’t changed much since when his sophomore directorial, Hum Tum, over two decades ago. “It was exactly the same. Adlabs was one of the few multiplexes then and they had a Thursday preview show. Hum Tum had a preview show on Thursday night. Adi (Aditya Chopra, producer) told me not to go because the industry people going for it wouldn’t get the film,” recalls Kohli.
But since there was no trial kept for Hum Tum, Kohli wanted to gauge the industry reactions on the eve of the film’s release. “I went for it, and the people there didn’t like the film. I was so depressed I called up Adi. He said, ‘I asked you to not go because I know it’s not their type of film.’ So, 99% of the people in the industry don’t want you to succeed,” remarks Kohli.
Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan in the movie Hum Tum (Source: Express Photo)
As it turned out, the Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji-starrer eventually became not only a commercial success, but also a seminal rom-com. “It took time for the film to settle down and get accepted. On Monday at 1 pm, Adi, I, and Rani were sitting in the office, still wondering if it’s going to drop or hold on Monday. Mr. Rakesh Roshan called me and said, ‘Kunal, your film is houseful in the 12:30 pm show on Monday in Indore! The biggest of big films fail to do that. Congratulations, your film is a big hit.’ I said, ‘Okay. Thank you, sir.’ I put the phone down and told Adi. He said, ‘I still haven’t gotten reports from Indore, but Rakesh ji has,’” recalls Kohli.
Rakesh Roshan extended that courtesy to Kohli despite the latter’s 2002 directorial debut Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, starring the former’s son Hrithik Roshan, not working at the box office. “There are people like Rakesh ji who’d support you, a new film. That’s why he’s such a big filmmaker. Because it took on himself to call up a young filmmaker to congratulate him. He could’ve called up Yash (Chopra, producer) ji, Adi, or Saif, but he called me, the filmmaker. There are one or two out of 100 people like that, but thankfully there are those one or two,” adds Kohli, laughing.
So, is the outpouring of love from the film industry for Dhurandhar all a façade? Or is it the unspoken ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ strategy? “There’s very little scratch my back. Because if you let someone scratch your back, they’d probably stab you in the back,” says Kohli, laughing. He’s called a spade a spade in the recent past, even calling out production houses for the unethical practice of block booking.
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“When you call out a practice like block booking, people would be like, ‘Tu pehle film bana phir dekhte hain tu kitni karta hai ya nahi karta.’ I mean, come on! We have to be more supportive. But very few people are, generally in every aspect of life, not just films,” says Kohli. Over 20 years later, he still cannot forget that Rakesh Roshan call. “So, I want to be the one to call up a young filmmaker or a contemporary and tell them, ‘Boss, I loved your film!’ It wouldn’t change my life, but it would change theirs. It changed mine. Rakesh ji is a man of few words. But that one-minute call changed my outlook,” adds Kohli.
