Ranveer Singh’s spy thriller Dhurandhar (2025) may have triumphed at the Indian box office, but it encountered a decisive geopolitical setback abroad: a complete ban across all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE unanimously rejected the film, citing “anti-Pakistan themes” that risked disturbing regional stability.
The move was more than a commercial dismissal it was a strategic diplomatic rebuke to Bollywood’s growing reliance on hyper-nationalist, revisionist storytelling. The GCC’s coordinated stance underscores how entertainment is increasingly regulated as a tool of conflict insulation, reflecting their need to protect internal cohesion and foreign policy neutrality.
The Deep Roots of Cinematic Revisionism
Directed by Aditya Dhar of Uri fame, Dhurandhar follows an Indian R&AW agent operating covertly inside Karachi, directly implicating Pakistan’s ISI in attacks such as 26/11. The GCC’s censorship bodies governed by strict guidelines forbidding content that may “harm the State’s foreign relations” or disrupt “national unity and social cohesion” uniformly rejected the film.
With millions of Indian and Pakistani expatriates living side by side in the Gulf, such charged narratives pose tangible social risks. Allowing a film that exacerbates sectarian or national hostility could inflame tensions in a region highly sensitive to diaspora dynamics. The ban reveals the GCC’s willingness to sacrifice one of Bollywood’s most profitable overseas markets to preserve internal stability a direct consequence of India’s growing cinematic revisionism.
This trend is rooted in Bollywood’s long-standing portrayal of South Asian geopolitics. Since the trauma of the 1947 Partition, Indian cinema has routinely framed the India–Pakistan rivalry through what scholars term “cartographic fundamentalism” reducing complex histories into binary depictions of a “righteous India” versus a “villainous Pakistan.”
The revisionism extends beyond the subcontinent. Afghanistan has repeatedly been portrayed through distortive lenses. Panipat (2019) sparked diplomatic backlash after portraying Afghan founder Ahmad Shah Durrani as a “thief and looter.” Similarly, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack sensationally attributed the 1999 hijacking to ISI orchestration, externalizing India’s diplomatic failures rather than engaging with historical nuance. These narratives reshape cultural soft power into geopolitical provocation.
The Imperative for Critical Literacy
The impact is particularly significant among youth especially the vast South Asian diaspora in the Gulf. When films marketed as “inspired by real events” dramatize sensitive security issues, viewers often absorb propagandistic tropes as factual history. This blurs the line between entertainment and geopolitical reality, increasing the risk of importing South Asian rivalries into a region that hosts both Indian and Pakistani communities in large numbers.
To counter this, policy efforts and cultural institutions must invest in Critical Media Literacy (CML). CML equips audiences to interrogate visual narratives, identify ideological framing, and differentiate between dramatic storytelling and political reality. Academic programs such as university modules on “Regional Peace and Security Through Cinema” can help students analyze master narratives that reinforce regional antagonism.
For India, the stakes are especially high. Persistent cinematic revisionism threatens its carefully cultivated soft power in the Gulf, one of its most strategically vital regions economically, politically, and in terms of diaspora presence.
Conclusion
The GCC’s rejection of Dhurandhar signals a turning point: aggressive nationalist storytelling may satisfy domestic audiences but undermines India’s international image. Unless Bollywood recalibrates its approach, it risks eroding India’s cultural credibility in regions where stability, neutrality, and social cohesion are paramount.
Cultivating a critically literate audience and producing cinema that fosters understanding rather than antagonism is essential to ensuring that India’s cultural influence contributes to regional harmony rather than reinforcing old rivalries.
