A film critic who spent decades as Bollywood’s ultimate gatekeeper is now playing the victim. Anupama Chopra’s recent social media post praising Gen Z for their “courage” while conveniently forgetting that it was the same Gen Z that trolled her into making her Dhurandhar review private reveals a woman trapped in an ego injury she simply cannot get over.
Let’s be clear about who Anupama Chopra is. She didn’t build her career on critical integrity; she built it on being a Bollywood insider with a powerful network – married to filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, sister of director Tanuja Chandra, educated at Northwestern, and positioned as the industry’s ultimate arbiter of taste. The fraternity kowtowed to her out of fear, not respect. She was the gatekeeper, the one whose verdict could make or break a film’s “critical” standing.
The Dhurandhar Debacle: A Veto That Failed
When Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar released in March 2026, Chopra went after it with a vengeance. She called it an “exhausting, relentless and frenzied espionage thriller” driven by “too much testosterone, shrill nationalism and inflammatory anti-Pakistan narratives”. She accused the film of “clunky” mixing of fact and fiction, took offence at its portrayal of Pakistan’s terror establishment, and essentially dismissed what audiences across the country were embracing.
The response was swift and brutal. Actor Paresh Rawal famously asked her: “Aren’t you tired of being Miss Irrelevant?”. Netizens called her out, her review was taken down from YouTube, and the film went on to become a massive blockbuster, reportedly grossing over ₹1,000 crore worldwide. Her veto failed. The public had spoken.
The Alpha Double Standard: Exposed
And then came Alpha.
Where Dhurandhar was eviscerated for its “hyper-masculinity,” Alpha – a catastrophic failure with weak writing, miscast leads, and implausible plotting, received a remarkably forgiving review from Chopra. She praised its “badass women,” “kinetic action,” and “inclusivity”. She identified virtually every major flaw in the film but repeatedly softened the impact by returning to its “ambition” and “intent”.
The double standard is staggering. When a ‘testosterone’-driven film succeeds with audiences, it gets savaged. When a female-led film fails, it gets defended because of what it tried to achieve. That’s Anupama Chopra for you.
Making It About Herself
Months after the Dhurandhar controversy, Chopra jumped on a student protest movement, the NEET-UG agitation that had absolutely nothing to do with film criticism and made it about herself.
Her post thanking Gen Z for their “courage” while conveniently forgetting that the same Gen Z rejected her critical verdict and turned Dhurandhar into a blockbuster is peak self-victimization.
Six months later, she is still stuck on Dhurandhar. That’s not courage. That’s an ego injury that refuses to heal.
Time to Call It What It Is
The public has seen through Anupama Chopra. She is no longer the gatekeeper; she is the gatekeeper who lost the keys and is now begging for sympathy from a generation she once dismissed. Her selective outrage, her double standards, and her inability to accept that her verdict no longer matters have rendered her Miss Irrelevant indeed.
The audience is the critic now. And the audience has moved on.
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