09/12/2025
In 2013, we created a film called Debal – Uncrowned Underdogs.
It was an original script, original characters, and an original world built from the ground up.
Gritty, raw, and ahead of its time.
The film never reached release, but it was real.
We lived it, we shot it, and everyone who worked on it remembers the ambition behind it.
Today, when I see Dhurandhar, I recognize familiar elements.
Not by accident, but by influence.
This is not an attack, not a complaint.
It is simply an acknowledgment of a pattern that many people in this industry already know well.
Pakistani cinema has always produced ideas, textures, stories, and emotional depth that are uniquely ours.
And time and time again, Bollywood has borrowed.
Sometimes they call it inspiration.
Sometimes they forget to mention where the foundation came from.
Debal came first.
Even unreleased films can leave fingerprints.
Cinema grows when we respect the roots.
When one film stands on the shoulders of another, it should say the name.
Give credit to Pakistani cinema.
It has been original for decades.
Bollywood copies.
History proves it again and again.
Debal did not reach the screen, but its creative spark did.
We built the blueprint.
Others built the house.
At the very least, acknowledge the land on which it stands.
