Yami Gautam calls Bollywood’s paid hype system extortion as 'Dhurandhar' battles early attacks

Highlights:

• Yami Gautam says some outlets demand money to boost or soften coverage
• Calls the practice a “monster” that harms films before release
• Defends husband Aditya Dhar’s work on Dhurandhar
• Hrithik Roshan supports her call for honest criticism
• Film lands in cinemas amid boycott calls and a legal dispute

Yami Gautam’s post on paid hype around Dhurandhar has pushed the film into a wider debate on marketing pressure and negative coverage. The controversy picked up fast across social platforms, as the actor warned that a “growing trend” of money-for-hype is turning into straight extortion.

Yami Gautam calls for unity in Bollywood while defending Dhurandhar Getty Images

Why Yami Gautam raised the issue before Dhurandhar opened

Her note appeared just a day before Dhurandhar reached cinemas. She said people who refuse to pay for “promotion” are hit with negative write-ups even before a film is seen. She wrote that the pattern is becoming normalised and could damage the wider industry if left unchecked. The language she used: “monster”, “plague”, “extortion,” signalled how strongly she felt. She also pointed to the South industries and said such practices don’t fly there because the community pushes back together.

How the Dhurandhar team fits into the row

Yami made it clear she spoke not only as an actor but as someone watching her husband Aditya Dhar shoulder the pressure around a large production. She said he has “given everything” to the film, and that this kind of forced hype kills the spirit of making a film honestly. For Dhar and his team, the noise around the film has not been small. Dhurandhar has already faced calls for boycott after Ranveer Singh’s mimicry of a Daiva at IFFI Goa upset a section of viewers. Singh apologised, though the criticism hasn’t fully settled. There is also the legal angle: the family of late Major Mohit Sharma took action against the makers, saying the film draws from his story without approval. The producers have denied that the film is based on him.

How other actors responded to Yami Gautam

Hrithik Roshan backed her publicly. His point was that honest criticism helps filmmakers grow, and that paid noise strips journalists of their own voice. The post added weight to Yami’s argument, as he framed the issue around creative freedom more than publicity tactics. The industry is used to heated marketing cycles, but it is rare for actors to call out specific practices so openly. Her words triggered a wave of posts from smaller artists saying they had seen similar pressure, though not always at the same scale.

What comes next for Dhurandhar and the debate

Dhurandhar arrives in cinemas on 5 December with a large cast and one of the most ambitious action teams attached to a recent Hindi film. The film will now be judged on its own merit, as Yami said in her note. Whether the larger conversation changes anything is still unclear, but the post has forced the subject into daylight, where more names may join in or step back quietly. For now, the film’s release will show whether the chatter around it shaped audience mood or not.