R. Madhavan has finally addressed the wave of polarising reactions surrounding Dhurandhar, and his response is calm, confident and rooted in experience. As debates intensify online over the film’s violence and narrative choices, the actor says he saw the backlash coming long before release. This is because he has lived through similar storms in the past.
In a conversation with Puja Talwar, Madhavan drew clear parallels between the response to Dhurandhar and the reactions to two of his biggest films, Rang De Basanti and 3 Idiots. Both titles are now considered modern classics, but Madhavan reminded fans that they also faced scepticism, doubts and even poor early ratings. “From the beginning, I knew this was going to impact society. People will give it bad ratings at first,” he said. “The people who gave two ratings have become irrelevant. We are still in the industry. You’re just missing the point, it’s time to evolve.”
The actor recalled how Rang De Basanti was written off before it even hit theatres, with distributors backing out and critics predicting failure. For him, Dhurandhar simply follows a familiar pattern: films that challenge, provoke or diverge from expectations often face resistance before being embraced. “When this happened with Dhurandhar, I thought, been there, done that,” Madhavan added, unfazed by early negativity.
He was especially critical of reviewers and online commentators who declare films “disasters” within hours of release. Madhavan believes such snap judgments rarely account for context, intention or storytelling depth. “As actors, we dream of these situations..when people say it’s stupid, nothing will happen… and then it blows up. You haven’t seen the end yet,” he said, expressing faith that the film’s longevity will silence its detractors.
Despite the strikingly polarised reviews, Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar has performed impressively at the box office. The film crossed ₹200 crore domestically in its first week and surpassed ₹300 crore worldwide shortly after, cementing itself as one of the year’s biggest commercial successes. R Madhavan is joined by a stellar cast complete with the lead Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal and debutant Sara Arjun.
Also Read: R Madhavan Says His Role Is Bigger in Dhurandhar 2 As He Mentors Ranveer Singh’s Spy Hero
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: filmfare.com
