New Delhi: Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt starrer Dhurandhar trailer has made Pakistanis once again jump in and question Bollywood—have they got it right? This time, it’s the story of Karachi’s Lyari gangsters; they allege, the director has messed up.
The film’s four-minute trailer depicts the town of Lyari, known for its infamous gang wars, and revolves around an Indian spy who infiltrates it.
A week after the trailer was released, Pakistanis have moved on from anger to amusement. Residents of Lyari want Ranveer Singh (who plays the Indian spy) to visit their town. Kids are rapping welcome songs for him, and adults are the least bothered.
A video by GeoTV shows local kids in Karachi rapping in English, asking Singh to visit Lyari.
“Ranveer Singh you think you know Lyari? Lyari has a lot of talent, a lot of things…”
The characters in the film, Rahman Dakait (Sanjay Dutt) and Karachi SP Chaudhury Aslam (Akshaye Khanna) are Karachiites. This has left Pakistanis confused — how are local criminals a threat to India’s national security?
“How did Bollywood connect Lyari gang wars with Jihadis, Islamic extremism, and anti-India militants? Lyari gang wars were based on turf wars, drugs, and political rivalries. India or jihad never figured in it. A movie based on Lyari gang war would be like vaastav or Company,” Muhibbe Watan wrote on X.
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Can a movie be made in Pakistan?
While some Pakistanis are critical of Bollywood’s representation of a gangster born in their country, others have been reflective of the censorship. They accept that Pakistani filmmakers could not have made a film on Rehman or the notorious gangs of Lyari.
“If someone had made a show/film on Lyari gang wars in Pakistan, the censor board would’ve banned it just to get some limelight for themselves, so that’s another roadblock that discourages Pakistani film makers from picking ambitious projects,” X user Momin Sheikh wrote.
X user Syed Zain Raza even noted that the trailer showed Rahman Dakait in a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally, asking if Pakistani filmmakers would ever be allowed to do that.
“Spot on. This is one of the biggest issues our filmmakers face. The Indian film’s trailer shows Rehman Dakait in a PPP rally. Could a Pakistani film be allowed to show that? Forget politics, even a film like Javed Iqbal based on a real life incident struggled to get a release,” he wrote.
Javed Iqbal was an infamous serial killer in Pakistan. A film called Kukri, originally titled Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of A Serial Killer, starring Pakistani actor Yassir Hussain and Ayesha Omer, was set to be released in 2021 but was later banned by the Punjab Government. The title was then changed, and the movie saw a theatrical release in 2023.
One X handle said Chaudhary Aslam would have been okay with Sanjay Dutt playing his character.
“Pakistan did make a very low effort movie on Chaudhary Aslam with an absolute nobody playing him. I’m pretty sure if he was alive, he would have loved to see his character albeit negative being played by Sanjay Dutt,” X user Yang Goi wrote.
Chaudhary Aslam was the Pakistani police officer who allegedly killed Rahman Dakait in 2009. Aslam was killed in a TTP bomb blast in 2014.
Dakait was a well-known PPP supporter and in 2007, when a bomb blast occurred in Benazir Bhutto’s car in Karachi, many claim Dakait was with her and was the intended target too. Dakait was an infamous Lyari gang leader who shot to fame during the gang war era in Karachi and was known for having killed someone at the age of 13 and even stabbed his own mother to death.
According to a 2010 Express Tribune article, rising from a member of Haji Laloo’s gang to become its chief, Dakait became a central figure in Lyari’s gang wars. His ascent was supported by longstanding political patronage, particularly from the PPP. In a vacuum left by weak governance and law enforcement, he provided jobs, weapons, and protection to local youth, expanding his influence, the article noted.
After the PPP’s 2008 election victory, Dakait attempted to legitimise himself, adopting the name Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch and forming the People’s Aman Committee (PAC), an organisation seen as aligned with the PPP.
In 2009, he was gunned down in what was labelled a ‘staged’ encounter by Lyari SP Chaudhury Aslam.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)