‘Have to be a real duffer to…’: Siddharth Anand's cryptic dig at Zakir Khan's remark on Bollywood reaction to Dhurandhar

Siddharth Anand, who has made films like Pathaan and Fighter, took to social media to take a dig at Zakir Khan's comments on Bollywood's reaction to Dhurandhar.

Comedian Zakir Khan recently stirred the pot with a cheeky swipe at Bollywood following the success of Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar, led by Ranveer Singh, claiming the film’s blockbuster run has left many in the industry “jealous.” Now, filmmaker Siddharth Anand has seemingly responded to the jibe, underlining the contributions of those based in Mumbai’s Bandra and Juhu to the Hindi film industry.

On Sunday, Zakir Khan took a dig at Bollywood over the blockbuster success of Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar franchise.

Siddharth Anand takes a dig at Zakir

Siddharth, who has made films like Pathaan and Fighter, took to X (formerly Twitter) to take a dig at the comment. While Siddharth did not take Zakir’s name directly, he came out in defence of the ‘Juhu-Bandra’ crowd, underscoring their significant contribution to the film industry.

He wrote, “Juhu - Bandra peeps have given all ATBBs (all-time blockbusters) since the past 50 years. You have to be a real duffer to undermine their contribution.”

Many felt the Bandra-Juhu statement was in response to Zakir claiming that film fraternity people living in these suburbs were rankled by Dhurandhar's success. Speaking at the Screen Awards 2026 recently, the comedian had said, “Bomb film mein foote Lyari mein par dhuan udaa hai Bandra se Juhu mein (There were bomb blasts in Lyari in the film, but there was smoke between Bandra and Juhu).”

Social media users were quick to connect the dots, flooding the conversation with their own takes and reactions. “This tweet proves Zakir's joke, though,” one wrote, with another sharing, “This post only amplifies what Zakir Khan said.”

“At first, I somewhat agreed that something like this might be true. Now I’m 200% sure what Zakir Khan said about Dhurandhar,” one shared.

On Monday, Ameesha Patel also responded to Zakir's remarks. Taking to her X account, Ameesha said, “Dude, stop spreading NEGATIVITY! film industry has valued and respected DHURANDHAR! Superstars like SRK, Salman, Sunny, Hrithik, Ajay etc have given not just 1 but 25 plus mega hits and will continue to do so. Chill. Gadar bahut saalon se sabne already machai hain aur aage bhi machaayenge (They have shown their power for several years and will do so in the future as well).”

What did Zakir Khan say

On Sunday, Zakir took the stage at the Screen Awards 2026 as one of the hosts alongside Alia Bhatt and Sunil Grover. Later, several clips from the ceremony surfaced on social media, with one moment in particular grabbing attention – Zakir’s dig at Bollywood over the blockbuster success of Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar franchise. Both the original film and its sequel have struck gold at the box office, becoming major commercial hits.

"Kitne hi congratulatory post aap daal de, kitne hi story daalde, kitne hi interview mein aap bolde my favourite film, magar sach toh yeh hai ke Dhurandhar se sabki jali toh hai (You may drop congratulatory messages and stories and say in interviews that it's your favourite film, but the truth is everyone got jealous of Dhurandhar),” Zakir is seen saying in the video.

Dhurandhar was released last year in December, and worked well at the box office, minting ₹1300 crore worldwide, and setting a new domestic collection record for Bollywood. The record was eventually broken by its sequel, released on the big screen on March 19. Dhurandhar 2 scripted history a few days ago by becoming the first Bollywood film to cross the ₹1000 crore mark in India. Apart from Ranveer, the film also stars R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi, and Sara Arjun.