Paresh Rawal responds to comparison between his role in Uri and R Madhavan's in Dhurandhar: ‘Didn't smoke but broke…’

After R Madhavan received flak for smoking in a Dhurandhar scene, Paresh Rawal points out how his role was different in Uri.

Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge have become two of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, especially in Hindi. Amid this come comparisons with his 2019 film Uri: The Surgical Strike. When an X (formerly Twitter) user compared Paresh Rawal’s role based on the National Security Advisor of India, Ajit Doval, in Uri to R Madhavan’s in Dhurandhar, the former responded.

Paresh Rawal and R Madhavan both played characters based on Ajit Doval in Uri and Dhurandhar.

Paresh Rawal responds to comparison with R Madhavan

An X user posted a picture of Paresh as NSA Govind Bhardwaj from Uri, writing, “I quite liked @SirPareshRawal as Ajit Doval in Uri The Surgical Strike! Except that they didn’t show him smoke in the film.” The picture shows Paresh saying, “You might have just won us the war, son.” Reposting the picture, the actor joked, “Yes dint smoke but only broke the phones (laughter emoji).”

Fans of his role thought his response was hilarious, with one person commenting, “Ajit Doval is like the Bond franchise. It’s an honor to play Bond. Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce brosnan & Daniel Craig. Similarly you should be proud :)” “Sir, phones had it coming, I guess,” joked another. One X user commented, “I think he is the best Doval. Pareshji has the personality and gravitas,” while another disagreed, writing, “No offense to Paresh Rawal..but Madhavan did a better job.”

R Madhavan clarifies smoking scene in Dhurandhar

This comes as Madhavan, who played Ajay Sanyal, Director of IB, was forced to clarify a scene from Dhurandhar. Many had shared pictures and videos of him smoking, claiming that he lit up the cigarette while reciting lines from Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Dasam Granth. After backlash from the Sikh community, the actor posted a video to clarify.

“I am certain that during this scene, before delivering the lines, Aditya Dhar, who takes more care of these things than I do, told me to put out the cigarette well in advance. He said no smoke would come out of my mouth, no smoke would appear on screen, and there would be no cigarette in my hand because it is very pure and sacred for us,” clarified Madhavan.

After that, Ranveer’s character Jaskirat Singh Rangi, alias Hamza Ali Mazari, was also accused of smoking while wearing a pagdi (turban). Aditya clarified that the image was generated by AI and that the film’s team had the utmost respect for the Sikh community. Dhurandhar 2 is running in theatres after its release on March 19.