‘Dhurandhar’ banned in all Gulf countries

Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar has been banned in all the Gulf countries. The collective ban has been imposed as it is being viewed as an anti-Pakistan film. The film’s director, Aditya Dhar, however, insists that Dhurandhar is not anti-Pakistan but anti-terrorism.

“I personally know families of martyred soldiers,” he says. “When their bodies are brought back, I’ve seen the grief. It is indescribable. People making insensitive comments on social media have never experienced the hurt and the grief. It’s time the government makes one year of Army life mandatory for every male child in India. This is the only way we can sensitize every Indian to the discipline and sacrifice that Army life entails. We have to let them know we are not a weak nation. If every time they attack us, we forgive and move on, then this cycle of terror attacks never stops. We have to let them know enough is enough.”

The film has not been released in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. When the Dhurandhar team reached out to these countries, they asked for massive cuts before allowing it to be screened.

Significantly, Aditya’s debut film Uri, about India’s 2016 ‘surgical strike’ on Pakistan, was also banned in the Gulf nations. And now, the filmmaker is planning a movie on Pakistan’s recent attack on Pahalgam.