Ranveer Singh in a still from the movie 'Dhurandhar'.
Credit: Jio Studios
The Film Critics Guild of India (FCG) today released a strongly worded statement officially condemning the ongoing "targeted attacks, harassment, and hate" aimed at film critics due to their reviews of Dhurandhar, the film directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh.
Taking to social media, FCG released a detailed statement, condemning the behaviour directed towards their members and declaring its full solidarity with their colleagues.
“The Film Critics Guild (FCG) strongly condemns the targeted attacks, harassment, and hate directed towards film critics for their reviews of Dhurandhar. What began as a disagreement has rapidly devolved into coordinated abuse, personal attacks on individual critics, and organised attempts to discredit their professional integrity."
In recent days, several of our members have faced intimidation, including direct threats and vicious online campaigns aimed at silencing their perspectives, simply for expressing their professional assessment of a film. More concerningly, there have been attempts to tamper with existing reviews, influence editorial positions, and persuade publications to alter or dilute their stance,” the statement read.
Concluding the statement, the FCG affirms that this moment is necessary, as the threat extends beyond one specific film. The core point is that the health of cultural dialogue relies entirely on critics' ability to voice opinions fearlessly. They finished by demanding restraint, respect and adherence to the principles that ensure the co-existence of art, critical debate, and commentary.
The Guild's statement was issued after multiple critics were heavily criticized for what many deemed to be biased reviews. The Chairperson is Anupama Chopra, whose Dhurandhar video review on The Hollywood Reporter India has been set to private. Sucharita Tyagi (Vice-Chairperson) and Bharathi Pradhan (Treasurer) round out the leadership.
Since its establishment in August 2018, the FCG has grown to include 57 members across 13 cities who regularly contribute film and series reviews for print, digital platforms and radio. Additionally, the Guild annually presents the Critics' Choice Awards for diverse cinema and web content.