By Ananya Sharma 
New Delhi, March 24: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday accused the Modi government of funding Bollywood films as political tools, singling out the newly released blockbuster Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge as “paid propaganda” designed to defame opposition parties ahead of crucial state elections. The allegation, made at a party event in Lucknow, marks the sharpest opposition broadside yet against a film that has collected over Rs 850 crore globally in just five days, and has drawn national news India watchers into a collision between cinema, statecraft, and electoral politics.
Akhilesh Yadav: The Accusation and Its Target
Yadav’s charge was direct. “You’re making films by spending money to defame other parties,” he told party workers, adding, “I think too much money has reached these people.”
The SP chief’s anger centers on a fictional character named Atif Ahmed in the film, whose physical appearance, criminal history, and political journey mirror those of the late Atiq Ahmed, a former SP-backed Lok Sabha member turned mafia don who was shot dead in Prayagraj in April 2023.
For the SP, the portrayal is not artistic license. It is a targeted electoral weapon.
Who Was Atiq Ahmed and Why Does It Matter
Atiq Ahmed held the SP’s ticket when he was elected to both the State Assembly and Parliament. The party that once gave him those tickets has now labelled the film as propaganda and pushed back against the narrative.
Dhurandhar 2 intensifies the political controversy by suggesting that figures like Atif Ahmed had direct links with hostile foreign agencies, specifically Pakistan’s ISI.
SP leader ST Hasan, a former MP, rejected that framing outright, stating that no Indian investigative agency has confirmed any such connection and calling the portrayal an attempt to manufacture controversy for political publicity.
SP MLA Abu Azmi from Maharashtra was more direct. “This film is made only to spread hatred. It is a false film,” Azmi told IANS, arguing the depiction unfairly links an entire community to wrongdoing.
What the Film Actually Portrays
Dhurandhar: The Revenge, written and directed by Aditya Dhar and produced under Jio Studios and B62 Studios, is the second and final installment of a spy action duology starring Ranveer Singh.
The film follows an undercover Indian intelligence agent infiltrating Karachi’s criminal and political networks while avenging the 26/11 attacks. Its storyline loosely draws from real events including Operation Lyari, the 2014 general elections, and the 2016 demonetisation.
It released worldwide on March 19, coinciding with Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, and Eid al-Fitr, and received mixed critical reviews, with praise for performances but criticism for its alleged nationalist propaganda. It was also banned in several Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Commercially, the numbers are hard to argue with. The first film earned approximately Rs 1,300 crore worldwide. The sequel has already crossed Rs 850 crore globally within five days of its release.
BJP’s Position and the Atiq Ahmed Subtext
The BJP has made no effort to distance itself from the film. Party leaders have publicly praised its “nationalistic” themes, and the timing of the release, just as Uttar Pradesh prepares for its next electoral cycle, has not gone unnoticed by political analysts tracking national news India developments.
The Atiq Ahmed connection is the sharpest edge of this controversy. Investigative records from his trial indicate that weapons were reportedly dropped by drones along the Punjab border and passed on to his network through local operatives, with the same consignments allegedly supplied to militants in Jammu and Kashmir.
Former DGP Vikram Singh told IANS that Atiq Ahmed’s gang was registered as IS-277, or Interstate-277, during his lifetime, lending some credibility to the film’s framing in the view of law enforcement veterans.
SP MP Rajeev Rai countered that the BJP “operates a mechanism that generates films based on its invented tales” to forge a particular image among citizens.
Filmmakers and Industry Push Back
Veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who has been vocal in his admiration for Aditya Dhar’s work, dismissed the propaganda label sharply on Monday, telling critics to simply make their own film if they disagreed with the narrative.
Neutral analysts who have reviewed Dhurandhar 2 argue that the propaganda label is an oversimplification, describing the film more accurately as a dramatized interpretation where facts and fiction intersect, and one that allows space for multiple viewer interpretations.
That nuance, however, is getting lost in an increasingly polarized national conversation.
Yadav’s Parallel Attacks: Gas, Grain, and Governance
Yadav’s Monday offensive was not limited to the film. He used the same platform to raise three urgent public grievances that have gained traction in UP’s political ground.
On farm distress, he accused the government of failing to procure potatoes from cultivators, alleging the procurement collapse has been so severe that some farmers have resorted to ploughing over their own standing crops rather than allowing unsold produce to rot.
On cooking fuel, he revived his now-familiar “Lapata Gas” framing. Yadav accused the government of failing to manage the impact of international supply disruptions on domestic LPG availability, saying the fuel had effectively become “missing gas” for ordinary households.
He drew a pointed historical comparison outside Parliament earlier this month, equating the LPG queues to the lines seen during the 2016 demonetisation and the oxygen shortage of the Covid-19 pandemic, describing all three as recurring patterns of government-imposed hardship on citizens.
The crisis has a structural explanation that both sides have acknowledged. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge noted that 60 per cent of India’s LPG is imported, with 90 per cent of that supply passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been disrupted by escalating tensions in West Asia. He also alleged that the cylinder booking wait period has been extended from 21 to 25 days, fueling hoarding and black-market activity.
The BJP rejected the crisis framing. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas stated that LPG bookings had in fact declined, with commercial cylinders now available for priority distribution in 30 states and union territories. BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla accused the SP of manufacturing panic for political gain, pointing to India’s strategic crude reserves and arguing that fuel prices had remained stable for three to four years.
On MoUs and industrial investment, Yadav demanded the government explain how many of the agreements announced at high-profile investment summits have translated into actual employment and capital deployment on the ground, rather than serving as press conference statistics.
Why This Moment Matters in National Politics
The Dhurandhar 2 controversy sits at the intersection of culture, governance, and electoral calculation, which is precisely why it is generating the heat it is.
The SP’s discomfort is not incidental. Atiq Ahmed was elected to the Lok Sabha on the party’s ticket and held significant influence within it for an extended duration. Every voter in Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, or Varanasi who watches the film and connects the fictional Atif Ahmed to the SP’s political past is, in the party’s view, a vote potentially lost.
By attacking the film publicly and repeatedly, however, the SP risks the opposite effect. The loudness of the protest has ensured that the question of the party’s historical association with Atiq Ahmed stays in the national conversation far longer than a quieter response might have allowed.
What is clear is that Dhurandhar 2 has done something rare. It has made a commercial entertainer inseparable from the country’s active political discourse, compressing questions about intelligence, crime, political patronage, and national security into a two-and-a-half-hour spy thriller that the opposition cannot ignore and the ruling party has no interest in distancing itself from.
In an election season, that is not an accident. Whether it is a conspiracy, as Akhilesh Yadav insists, is the question that will define this controversy going forward.
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Covers Indian politics, governance, and policy developments with over a decade of experience in political reporting.
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
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