Dhurandhar was already limping through a swamp of controversies — accusations of excessive violence, communal undertones, and a runtime longer than audience patience. But now, the film finds itself staring down the barrel of its most serious crisis yet. The family of Ashoka Chakra and Sena Medal awardee Late Major Mohit Sharma has stormed the Delhi High Court, demanding an immediate halt on the film’s release. Their petition is not polite, diplomatic, or restrained. It is a blistering, unforgiving indictment of what they call the film’s gross insensitivity and unethical storytelling.
According to the plea, Dhurandhar appears to lift major elements directly from Major Sharma’s real-life intelligence operations and martyrdom — without permission, clearance, or even the decency of acknowledgment. The family asserts that the narrative closely mirrors his classified missions and journey, yet the filmmakers neither approached them nor sought approval from the Indian Army. In other words, the film allegedly uses a soldier’s sacrifice as fodder for commercial entertainment — a move the family condemns as exploitative and morally bankrupt. Their statement hits like a punch to the gut: “A martyr is not a commercial commodity.”
The petition goes further, slamming the film for violating Major Sharma’s posthumous personality rights and intruding upon the dignity and privacy of his loved ones — a breach they argue falls under Article 21 of the Constitution. They highlight that no filmmaker has the moral right to turn a soldier’s death into dramatic garnish without consent. And the indictment only intensifies: the film allegedly portrays infiltration strategies, covert warfare methods, and confidential operational systems without any vetting from the ADGPI — a lapse that, if accurate, is not just careless, but potentially dangerous. National security, the family warns, is not a playground for “creative liberties.”
With the petition naming the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, CBFC, ADGPI, director-producer Aditya Dhar, and Jio Studios, the film stands cornered on all fronts. The family has demanded a private screening before release and is urging the court to mandate a nationwide rule: no film based on real-life martyrs should be allowed without compulsory approval from the Army and the martyr’s kin. It’s a common-sense standard the industry should have implemented decades ago, yet here we are — watching it unfold only because a family was forced to defend their hero’s honour.
What makes this blow even harsher is that Dhurandhar was already wobbling. The film — starring Ranveer Singh, R. Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, and Sara Arjun — has been drowning in negativity thanks to its violence-heavy trailer, whispers of propaganda, and early backlash from audiences fatigued by hyper-nationalistic melodrama. Add this legal and moral firestorm, and the movie is no longer fighting for box-office success — it’s fighting for legitimacy, ethics, and basic respectability. And right now, it seems to be losing on every front.
In the end, the family said what the nation silently knows: a soldier’s life is not raw material for spectacle. A martyr’s legacy must be protected, not mined for dramatic effect. If even a fraction of these allegations are true, Dhurandhar has crossed a line that Bollywood should never have approached. This is a battle the filmmakers never anticipated — a battle rooted not in cinema, but in honour, dignity, and accountability. And this time, no amount of cinematic swagger can save them.