Reviews on “Dhurandhar”: Film Critics Guild condemns attack on critics

Entertainment: The organisation for film critics, Film Critics Guild, condemned the latest trend of targeted attacks, harassment and hate on those who criticise the recently released Bollywood movie, “Dhurandhar”.

The organisation pointed out that disagreement towards critics' opinions has evolved into coordinated attacks and abuse on persons, ultimately an organised attempt to discredit their professional integrity, Scroll reported.

“Dhurandhar” is directed by Aditya Dhar and features Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan and Sanjay Dutt and was released on big screens on December 5.

According to the Film Critics Guild, its members faced intimidation, including direct threats and “vicious online campaigns aimed at silencing their perspectives” in recent days for professionally assessing the movie.

Members of the organisation’s managing committee, Anupama Chopra and Sucharita Tyagi, were among the film critics who were trolled on social media after they published their reviews.

Chopra’s review was critical of the film and was published on “The Hollywood Reporter India”, but her piece was taken down after she was trolled.

The association said that there have been attempts to tamper with existing reviews, influence editorial positions, and persuade publications to alter or dilute their stance. According to it, the attacks came following “frequent devaluing and ridiculing” of film criticism by a “broad spectrum of industry players” in the recent past.

It stated that the mind to police opinion sets a dangerous precedent, and the claims that professional film critics have a bias “or political axe to grind” are “unsubstantiated and malicious”.

The organisation asserted that it was concerned about the safety of its colleagues across the country. It told the public, the industry and other stakeholders “to recognise that liking or disliking a film is your right but expecting critics to fall in line is not,” Scroll quoted.