Humour against Bollywood propaganda has become a powerful way for Pakistanis to respond biased cinematic narratives. Cinema, streaming platforms, and social media do more than tell stories, they actively shape social perceptions. Across South Asia, satire has long served as a tool to challenge one-sided or politically motivated depictions, from political cartoons to digital sketches and comedy.
This response shows how humour against Bollywood propaganda functions as a form of cultural resistance in Pakistan, allowing communities to reclaim agency, question exaggerated portrayals, and reaffirm cultural identity.
The Dhurandhar Phenomenon
This trend has been especially noticeable when the Indian spy thriller Dhurandhar was released. The movie directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh is based on the journey of an Indian secret agent who traverses in the underworld of Karachi as a spy. The film has been sold as a fast paced action thriller, with slick shots, explosive scenes of chasing, and a soundtrack that is viral.
The appeal of the film is controversial to many Pakistanis and Muslims globally. Dhurandhar paints a picture of a country of terror and corruption, which is narrative engineering. Online chat rooms, social media platforms, and even informal conversations have stated that the film portrayal of Pakistani characters and city life is over-the-top, inaccurate, and representative of a wider Bollywood prejudice against the nation. The storyline of the movie, critics believe, is a continuation of an oversimplified image of an enemy, and of realities that are complex to digest abroad and are made palatable by a film.
Satire as a Response: “Day 1 as a Spy in Pakistan”
Instead of acting on anger, Pakistani audiences have resorted to humour as an act of resistance. An Instagram trend that is titled “Day 1 as a spy in Pakistan” turns the spy plot of the film into humor. In these brief and viral videos, the portrayal of agents is humorously de-masked on their first day in the country, not in the context of intelligence activities, but in the context of cultural follies and minor, daily, idiosyncrasy. Inverting the spy story into satire, the content creators implicitly criticize the assumptions and simplifications of the film and show that life in reality does not fit into cinematic representations.
Humour Against Bollywood Propaganda
This comedy backlash is rooted in South Asian media traditions, where humour has long been used to challenge narratives seen as foreign or propagandistic. Like political cartoonists of the past, today’s digital sketches rely on familiarity, irony, and cultural nuance to question exaggerated portrayals.
These responses reinforce cultural self-confidence, reminding audiences that everyday life, relationships, and social norms rarely fit simplistic cinematic binaries. Where official censorship may fall short, social media humour emerges as an accessible and powerful tool for shaping discourse, transforming critique into widely shared laughter.
The Dhurandhar phenomenon, therefore, brings out the intricate nature of entertainment, propaganda and social commentary in the digital era. In Pakistan it serves to highlight a larger trend that humour is becoming a tool of challenging biased discourses more and more. By laughing at it in an Instagram post and on various other platforms, Pakistani viewers are not reacting to a foreign spy thriller, they are re-framing it. They regain the power over the way that their narratives, culture, and identity are portrayed, proving that laughter can be not just entertainment, but also a way of resistance, criticism, and self-expression.
Laughter as a Tool of Empowerment
Ultimately, humour against Bollywood propaganda reflects how satire can challenge stereotypes without resorting to outrage. In a world where cinematic narrative has a habit of venturing beyond boundaries with political undertones, online snickering at Dhurandhar is a wake-up call to realize that humour is, by far, one of the most perennial and democratic means of questioning the narrative, speaking up, and influencing discourse in such a way that official pronouncements and prohibitions can hardly accomplish. It is a phenomenon which not only amuses but also has power, and demonstrates that in the war of words, wit and satire can be as effective as any political argument.
Nimra Khalil is a Pakistan-based geopolitical analyst and opinion writer specializing in international relations, security strategy, and great power competition in a multipolar world, with a focus on South Asia and the Asia-Pacific.