Dharamveer 2: Shots fired as Eknath Shinde releases film sequel

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has used a potent mix of politics and cinema to justify splitting the Shiv Sena, and depict Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray in a poor light, with the release of Dharamveer 2. The film, which premiered across five screens at an Inox theatre in Mumbai on Thursday night, also plays up the Hindutva card, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.
Shinde, who has a cameo in the film, was unable to attend the grand premiere as he underwent surgery on Wednesday, but the multiplex was attended by leaders of his Shiv Sena and party functionaries of the ruling Mahayuti alliance. It was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was absent.
Dharamveer 2 is a sequel to Dharamveer, which released in November 2023. The first part was a biopic of the late Anand Dighe, Shinde’s mentor and a Shiv Sena leader from Thane. It projected Shinde as Dighe’s heir.
The second part focuses on why Shinde split the Sena and led the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, in 2022.
Shinde has always claimed that he broke away from the party for the sake of Hindutva. The party established by Bal Thackeray had forgotten Hindutva, he has said, and it was being dragged willy-nilly behind its alliance partners, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
When he released the poster for Dharmaveer 2, the tagline read, ‘Traitors of Hindutva will not be spared’. It was a taunt at the Shiv Sena (UBT), which had put in a commendable showing in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year. Its performance was, however, dismissed by Shinde’s Sena and its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as being “driven by Muslim votes”.
As far as Shinde is concerned, the first movie touched upon his life until he became a minister in the MVA government; the sequel focuses on his role as the state’s Chief Minister. The message, coming on the eve of the assembly elections, is far from subtle: Shinde has been taking Dighe’s legacy of serving the people and of Hindutva forward.
Dharamveer 2 was originally scheduled for release before the Lok Sabha elections, but Shinde decided to release it on eve of the assembly polls instead. On why a sequel had been made, the film’s producer Mangesh Desai said, “Many exploits of Dighe saheb could not be accommodated in the first movie. The sequel will highlight these.”
The story, screenplay and dialogue of Dharmaveer 2 were written by Praveen Tarde, who directed both films too. Noted Marathi actor Prasad Oak has played the role of Dighe in the both films.
Commenting on Dharamveer 2, a Shiv Sena leader says, “The film depicts how Shinde was repeatedly insulted by the Thackeray family just as Raj Thackeray, Narayan Rane, Chhagan Bhujbal and others were. It also shows how Uddhav Thackeray is inaccessible as a leader and how he once insulted MLA Sanjay Shirsat, who was kept waiting at the gates of Varsha when Uddhav Thackeray was chief minister.’’
The Shiv Sena UBT camp has, obviously, given the film a scathing review. Party leader Anil Parab says, “For more than two decades, Shinde didn’t once remember Dighe. Now he is using his memory for the upcoming elections.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut alleges that Shinde is leveraging the big screen to humiliate party founder Bal Thackeray by projecting Dighe as a leader of greater stature than the former. “Lakhs of supporters of Balasaheb Thackeray in Maharashtra do not accept the leadership of Eknath Shinde. So, through Dharmveer and Dharmveer 2, Shinde is trying to create a new icon in Maharashtra politics. With the help of the BJP, he wants to portray Dighe as greater than Balasaheb Thackeray,” he said.
Taking another dig at Shinde, Raut added, “More than Shinde, it was Rajan Vichare who was close to Anand Dighe. If Shinde was as loyal to the Shiv Sena as was Dighe, there would have been no need to make up such fictional stories about Dighe.”
Hitting out at the Congress, meanwhile, Dharamveer 2 depicts then Thane Police Commissioner RD Tyagi as attempting to suppress Hindu festivals in Thane at the behest of the Congress, which was then in power at the Centre. It also shows the Congress as insulting Veer Savarkar, a leader revered by right-wing parties. It depicts Balasaheb Thackeray as slapping an effigy of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, although Uddhav Thackeray has since teamed up with the Congress.
Raut also slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his Maharashtra tour and statements he recently made about Thackeray and the Pawar family. “For generations, Maharashtra has been doing two jobs. First, protecting the country, and second, revealing the ground reality to the arrogant,” Raut said.
He went a step further, saying: “Just like Aurangzeb, Amit Shah continuously launched political attacks on Maharashtra. But like Aurangzeb, even if Shah was to stay in Maharashtra, aiming to defeat us in the assembly elections, he will not succeed.”
Adding a cinematic flourish, Raut reacted to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s statement that he would write the script for Dharmveer 3. “Fadnavis should write a movie on Aurangzeb, instead,” he said.