Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia discusses ‘Dhurandhar’, says Indian cinema lacks strong storylines

Argues industry was changing due to growing influence of corporate culture

Indian filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia questioned the state of storytelling in the country's cinema, citing Dhurandhar as a prime example of the industry’s transition towards fictional biopics.

According to Gulf News, Dhulia discussed Dhurandhar's execution, describing it as engaging. However, he argued that it didn't have an underlying plot in the traditional sense. Instead, it followed a commercially driven fictional-biopic format.

“There is a man, he is a cover spy. He goes to Pakistan and wreaks havoc there,” Dhulia said. “Is that a story? Stories have disappeared from films.”

The filmmaker compared the approach to other commercially successful films such as Pushpa and KGF, arguing that they followed a similar template.

Dhulia added that the industry was changing because of the growing influence of corporate culture, with filmmakers increasingly relying on familiar formulas. “They are not allowed to tell those stories because they think, ‘These stories won’t work.’ There is only one template,” he said.

The filmmaker also spoke about the growing sameness of popular culture around the world, suggesting that even cities and their individual identities were increasingly becoming indistinguishable. “Go anywhere, everybody looks the same. Every city has started looking the same. The character of every city has disappeared,” he said.

Using his hometown as an example, Dhulia told Gulf News that it had also lost some of its distinctive character. “My city, Allahabad, which was once a beautiful city, now looks like any other city. The same malls, the same cars, everything is the same,” he said.

Dhurandhar is an undercover Indian intelligence operative film written and produced by Aditya Dhar. The film features Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna and Sanjay Dutt, among other notable faces from the Indian entertainment industry.

According to Gulf News, Dhurandhar grossed over Rs3 billion worldwide, becoming one of Bollywood's biggest commercial films. Dhulia questioned the same success due to what he saw as the lack of a proper storyline.