Varun Dhawan calls Dhurandhar a director's win; Ranveer Singh's fans react

Varun Dhawan has drawn attention online after calling Ranveer Singh's espionage thriller, Dhurandhar a "director's win" during a conversation with his father, filmmaker David Dhawan, at an event on the sidelines of the David Dhawan Film Festival. The remark sparked discussion on Reddit, where some users said Varun appeared to be insecure about Ranveer Singh.

Varun, who will next be seen in his father David Dhawan's directorial Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, raised the subject at the PVR initiative while asking why filmmakers today are unable to make films freely.

In response, David Dhawan spoke about the difficulty of judging box-office performance and said the industry continues to be driven by actors. Varun then pointed to Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar and asked whether it was a director's win, a point David accepted before adding that actors usually have a bigger role to play.

During the exchange, David Dhawan said, "I think anyone who has a pen and a phone feels they are a journalist. It has become very difficult. I can't figure out which film became a hit and which one didn't. It's very difficult to gauge collections. But again, it's run by the actors. Pehle bhi tha, abhi bhi hai (It existed earlier too, and it still exists now)."

Varun replied, "Why do you feel that? Today, when you see Dhurandhar, you see someone like Aditya Dhar and the way he made the film. Toh woh toh director ki jeet thi na? (So that was a director's win, right?)"

David responded, "He is one of a kind. Actually, he's the only one. Yes, that was a director's win, but otherwise, if you see, actors ka zyada haath hota hai. (Actors play a bigger role.)" David also said actors are not loyal and keep moving from one director to another, prompting Varun to quip, "Actors are very insecure."

After clips of the conversation reached Reddit, several users criticised Varun. One comment read, "Haha ikr! These people are soooooo insecure of Ranveer!" Another user wrote, "Ranveer was the best thing in the entire movie(s). He was consistently fantastic and brilliant; I won't hear anything otherwise."

A different comment read, "Wow! So much work to discredit someone. I would like Varun to say the same about maybe Animal?" One more user wrote, "He could be right or he could be wrong, but the one person who absolutely does not have the right to say this is Varun Dhawan. Or maybe he just wants to pawn off all his flops on the director."

Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar film series features actors Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan, Rakesh Bedi, Sanjay Dutt, Manav Gohil, Danih Pandor and others in key roles.

On the professional front, Varun's upcoming film, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, also features Mrunal Thakur, Pooja Hegde and Maniesh Paul.