New Delhi:
Imtiaz Ali, who’s had a delightful year with his sleeper hit Main Vaapas Aaunga, recently opened up about how people thought Dhurandhar was an ‘impractical’ film when it was doing the rounds of studios.
At the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, the director said, “I feel something very interesting is happening in the film industry. We are in that delicious phase where people are saying that nothing is working. Should we go with the big star, non-star… what is going to work? People are saying that attention span is missing in the audience, but the films which are doing well are three hours long. Nothing long is working. People are citing Dhurandhar as an example of what is successful, but look at the length of that film!”
He continued, “Forgetting the fact that when Dhurandhar was actually conceived and it was doing its rounds of those studios, people thought that this was the most impractical film, with the least likelihood of success! But it broke all the rules, and after that everybody wants to make that. All of us are thinking about what will work. The language might change, but I feel it’s a phase of introspection that the film industry is going through.”
Dhurandhar Losing Out On The Oscar Race
Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar and its sequel Dhurandhar: The Revenge were among the films considered by the jury to represent India at the 2027 Academy Awards. But despite the two films being among the year’s biggest Hindi releases, neither made it to the final selection. One of the Jury member Vivek Vaswani has now revealed why.
Vaswani told NDTV jury did not consider Dhurandhar or Dhurandhar: The Revenge to be Oscar contenders. He also said the films did not represent Indian culture in the way the jury was looking for while deciding India’s official submission.
The voting numbers offer another insight into the jury’s decision. When asked how many votes Dhurandhar received out of the 14-member jury, Vaswani said the film got only four votes.
The comments come after the Film Federation of India announced Marathi film Gondhal as India’s official entry for the 2027 Oscars in the Best International Feature Film category. Directed and written by Santosh Davakhar, Gondhal emerged from a field comprising 14 Hindi films, four Marathi films, four Telugu films, three Gujarati films, three Tamil films, one Malayalam film one Nepali film and one film from Nagaland.
The jury’s final three films were Gondhal, Angh and Maine Vaapas Aayunga, with Gondhal eventually being selected.
Dhurandhar, directed by Aditya Dhar, featured Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi and Sara Arjun. The first part arrived in theatres in December 2025, followed by the second instalment in March 2026.
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