RGV calls Toxic insult to intelligence compared to Dhurandhar

Ram Gopal Varma praises 'Dhurandhar' ahead of 'Dhuroxic' clash with Toxic on March 19. "#DHURANDHAR respects audience intelligence; #TOXIC presumes dumbness," he posts on X. Lists 10 truths slamming Toxic's hero worship, fake action, loud score vs Dhurandhar's real punches, silence, smarts.

's significant hit espionage spy thriller, ‘Dhurandhar’, starring

since its release on December 5 last year. Now, he's showing his support again and this is before the sequel ‘Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge’ clashes with Geethu Mohandas' Kannada action film ‘Toxic: A Fairytale for Grown-Ups’, starring Yash from ‘KGF’.

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On Sunday, the filmmaker clarified in an X (formerly Twitter) post that ‘Dhuroxic’ pits two cinematic cultures against each other, “not of regions, but of cinema”, dismissing any “North vs South” or “Bollywood vs Sandalwood (the Kannada cinema industry)” narrative. “The principal difference between the two is that #DHURANDHAR respects the audience’s intelligence and #TOXIC presumes their dumbness.”

He contrasted Yash's Kannada hit franchise ‘KGF’, which played to “the dumbness in the masses,” with Dhurandhar's appeal to their “intelligence,” propelling it to global success and knocking ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ (2022) off its perch as the fourth highest-grossing Indian cinema worldwide.

How Prabhas’ The RajaSaab Became collateral in Dhurandhar-Toxic Battle

RGV listed "10 savage brutal truths" to compare Dhurandhar 2 and Toxic. One was "mindless hero worship vs the audience themselves discovering heroes through their moral actions in the story."

He said Toxic's action scenes "mocked physics and insulted every school kid who studied Newton," but Dhurandhar's fights feel "so raw and real that one can actually feel the punches." He added that Toxic's music screams "claps and whistle now, you idiots" every five minutes, while Dhurandhar uses "dead silence that lets brilliant performances do the talking.

" He also said Rs 700 crore went to Toxic to make Yash look like an invincible God, but just Rs 130 crore for Dhurandhar to make every character "feel equally human."

‘Dhurandhar’ stars Ranveer Singh but has a strong group of actors like Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, R. Madhavan,

, plus others. RGV kept ttacking Toxic. He said Yash’s flying hair in slow-motion hero shots looks “straight out of a shampoo ad.” He added that large “vulgar budgets” went to waste on “VFX fireworks, eyesore sets, and stars just to hide creative vacuum.”

RGV concluded his post, “A film that begs the audience to switch their brains off to enjoy it versus a cinema forcing you to think, feel, and question every frame,” said Varma. He added, “Money being poured versus money being put to use.” He ended his X post saying it's not his love for Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar that made him write it. It's his “hope for Indian cinema,” to see if “the country is Dhurandhar or Toxic.”

'Dhurandhar - The Revenge' and ‘Toxic: A Fairytale for Grown-Ups’ are set to lock horns on March 19, 2026.

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