‘Dhurandhar’ was a big hit at the box office but it was also called ‘propaganda’ tag which sparked a wider conversation about whether cinema should be judged by the political ideas it puts forward. Economist and author Sanjeev Sanyal has now weighed in on the debate, arguing that filmmakers should have the freedom to tell the stories they want to tell and audiences should have an equal choice to accept or reject them.Sanyal, who is a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), shared his views in an interview recently. His book The Revolutionaries is currently being adapted into a series for Prime Video, and the economist believes there should be room for different viewpoints to coexist in popular cinema.Sanyal also opened up about Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar, revealing that he watched both films in the franchise after hearing positive feedback from people around him. He admitted that several of the actors were unfamiliar to him before he watched the films, but the franchise helped him discover their work. “I did watch those two Dhurandar films and I really loved them,” Sanyal said. “But you can tell that I didn’t really know many of the actors in that! I literally know who they are because of Dhurandhar,” he said in an interview with News18.Speaking about the tendency to label films with a particular political outlook as propaganda, Sanyal said he prefers to apply the same principle that was often suggested to him when he disliked a film’s ideology: simply do not watch it. He argued that filmmakers should be allowed to put their ideas before the audience without being prevented from doing so.“My view is, let a hundred flowers bloom.For example, people in the past would make films which I would consider being, ultra-left wing, which was the default till very recently, I was told that if you don’t like it, don’t watch it,” he said.“So my view remains that that’s a pretty good way of thinking about it. If you don’t like Dhurandhar, don’t watch it. If you don’t like Revolutionaries, don’t watch it. My idea is to present my ideas.”His own project, The Revolutionaries, is based on his book of the same name and explores a particular strand of India’s freedom struggle. Explaining why he feels the story lends itself better to a series than a feature film, Sanyal said the focus is not merely on individual revolutionaries, but on the wider armed revolutionary movement that connected them.“There are innumerable books, documentaries, movies made about individual freedom fighters,” Sanyal said. “Point about the armed struggle is that it is not presented as a movement. And that’s the point about my book.”He pointed out that while personalities such as Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Rash Behari Bose are well known, their stories are often presented separately. According to Sanyal, this can obscure the ideological and historical links that connected these figures and helped shape a movement that continued for decades.“You will get the impression that these are heroic characters who got up one morning and did something. But there is a thread that links all these people, that there are certain ideas, frameworks, and historical events that link all of these people into a movement that lasted over many decades.”The series format, he explained, also allows the makers to explore this history at greater length rather than compressing a complex movement into a two- or three-hour film. “So you can have another season and another season and so on, depending on how this one pans out,” he said.Sanyal further clarified that The Revolutionaries does not attempt to offer a comprehensive account of the entire Indian freedom movement. Instead, it focuses on the armed revolutionary stream and the people and ideas associated with it.“I recognise that there are many streams of our freedom struggle, and this is about one of them. It’s part of history. It’s true,” he said.The Revolutionaries is set to premiere on Prime Video on September 11.