7 Years Of Dhoom 3: Director Viktor Acharya Tries To Decode Why Fans Love The Heist Franchise So Much

Vijay Krishna (Viktor) Acharya, the writer of Dhoom and Dhoom: 2 and the director of Dhoom 3, has given India its biggest franchise with these adrenaline pumping, anti-hero entertainers that have been true visual spectacles on screen. On the seventh anniversary of Dhoom 3, a film that shattered all box office records, Viktor tries to decode why people love this franchise so much. He says, “As a viewer and as a kid growing up, I have liked the heist film a lot. I think there is something inherently anti-establishment about a heist film, which is what the Dhoom series also stand for. If you look at any kind of a film where characters which are morally grey exist, they are rebelling against society in some manner, or they are, as was the case in Dhoom 3, taking revenge.”

Viktor speaks about what his biggest achievement has been with the Dhoom series. He says, “For me, as a writer, I suppose when you write films in which you want a certain kind of audience participation and appreciation, your biggest victory is the fact that it is liked, and it has popular appeal. I very strongly feel that looking for popular appeal is not the role or job of the writer, the role for us is to try and do something which we like. And, at the same time, is created with some sort of an end in mind knowing a kind of an audience which exists, but it is not a pleasing all, variety.”

He adds, “I mean as a writer that’s what one should not do because you don't have to run after an audience, and at least for me, whatever I have written, I think whether the hits or the misses has been a fun ride cause you have to try and do something new or different. And that's how Dhoom came about. Honestly, before the first Dhoom, nobody wanted to do a film without that kind of drama as Hindi films were used to, and even in Dhoom 2 they were all A-list stars doing an action film. But there was enough meat for everybody and it was an entertainer. It was a true entertainer.”