Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has opened up about the challenges he faced while working with John Abraham during the making of his 2007 sports drama Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal. In a recent interview with Dainik Bhaskar, the director spoke candidly about the difficulties of navigating Bollywood’s star-driven system, indirectly pointing to Abraham’s limitations as an actor.
Agnihotri said that John Abraham was cast primarily due to his football background, rather than his acting prowess. “Everyone was like, ‘Let’s take John, he is a footballer.’ That’s how he became a part of the film,” Agnihotri stated. He further added that during production, scenes involving Abraham had to be shot in parts, specifically focusing separately on his face and feet, implying performance constraints.
Without directly naming Abraham, Agnihotri went on to express his frustration with actors who struggle to deliver dialogues fluently. “If someone tells me ‘reduce my dialogues,’ why? Because you can’t say them at once? You can’t say five lines of dialogue in rhythm at once? Then why are you taking so much money?” he said, in a clear jab at the industry’s reliance on actors based on popularity rather than merit.
He criticized the broader Bollywood ecosystem, saying, “The entire ecosystem is dependent on an incompetent, very mediocre actor’s intelligence. From how marketing should be done, to who should be on the poster.”
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal featured a strong ensemble cast including Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, and others. Despite its star power and sports theme, the film received mixed reviews at the time of release.
Agnihotri is currently gearing up for the release of his next film, The Bengal Files, a political drama based on the 1940s communal violence in undivided Bengal. The film features Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, and Saswata Chatterjee, among others.
Produced by Abhishek Agarwal and Pallavi Joshi, and presented by Tej Narayan Agarwal under I Am Buddha Productions, The Bengal Files is the third film in Agnihotri’s “Files” trilogy, following the critically discussed The Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files.
The Bengal Files is scheduled for a theatrical release on September 5, 2025.
