Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap addressed the criticism faced by film reviewers after the release of Dhurandhar and said the social media attacks were not organic.

The Black Friday director spoke during a conversation with film critics Sucharita Tyagi on her YouTube channel. Referring to the online reaction to reviews of Dhurandhar, directed by Aditya Dhar, Anurag said the backlash appeared organised.

“This backlash thing is again a social media construct,” he said. “A lot of it is not organic. I genuinely believe it is not organic.”

The Maharaja director stated that several critics were targeted for sharing negative opinions about the film. He said he had also commented on the film and had pointed out what he found problematic.

“I said what I found problematic, and I said this too. What is wrong is wrong,” he said. “Mujhe kaisi lagi does not mean I am going to force my opinion on someone else.”

Dhurandhar received mixed reviews after its release. While many viewers and critics praised certain aspects of the film, others criticised its political tone. Some reviewers reported facing online trolling following their reviews. The Film Critics Guild of India later released a statement condemning the attacks and supporting critics.

Anurag further said, “Ye jo coordinated attacks hote hain, ye coordinated hi hote hain, ye organic nahi hote. Organic can be ‘I don’t agree with you.’ I can disagree with you.”

The film stars Ranveer Singh as an Indian operative working undercover in Pakistan’s Lyari area, targeting criminal networks linked to terrorism. Based on real events, the film also features Akshaye Khanna, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and Sanjay Dutt.

Meanwhile, Anurag awaited the India release of his film Kennedy. The film, starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, was scheduled to stream on Zee5 on February 20.

The filmmaker maintained that disagreement was natural but said organised attacks on critics were not justified.