A high-profile drama unfolding in India’s iconic Bollywood film industry has taken a new turn, with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) reversing its earlier call for industry members to stop working with A-list actor Ranveer Singh, following his unexpected departure from the much-anticipated action sequel *Don 3* just weeks before a scheduled overseas production shoot.
The union first rolled out the informal ban last month, after production team behind *Don 3* filed an official complaint alleging that Singh had walked away from the project unexpectedly. At the time of his exit, producers had already poured roughly 450 million Indian rupees (equivalent to $4.7 million USD) into pre-production work for the big-budget franchise installment.
The reversal of the boycott came only after Singh reportedly submitted a formal legal notice to the film industry body, though the BBC has not independently obtained or verified a copy of this document. In public comments released this week, FWICE president BN Tiwari affirmed the union’s support for Singh, noting that the Indian film community stands behind the star and that the federation’s legal team will prepare an official response to the notice.
FWICE chief adviser Ashoke Pandit clarified that the decision to lift the ban came after multiple leading industry organizations pushed for a de-escalation of the conflict. Pandit also extended an invitation to Singh for in-person talks to resolve the underlying dispute. “We celebrate his stardom… We don’t have any authority to ban anyone. We are hopeful that there will be a positive reaction from Ranveer,” Pandit told Indian broadcaster NDTV.
To date, Singh has not issued any public statement addressing the *Don 3* conflict directly. His spokesperson previously released a brief comment noting that Singh holds the Indian film industry and the *Don* franchise in the “highest regard” and had chosen to refrain from public comment on the matter amid ongoing discussions.
The *Don* franchise is one of Bollywood’s most valuable and long-running action intellectual properties. It first launched back in 1978, with Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan in the titular lead role. Filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, who is attached to direct *Don 3*, rebooted the franchise in the early 2000s with global superstar Shah Rukh Khan headlining the new installments. When *Don 3* was formally announced in 2023, Ranveer Singh was tapped as the new lead to carry the franchise forward into its next era.
Singh is one of Bollywood’s biggest contemporary leading men, famous for his over-the-top public persona and a string of commercially successful critical hits including *Padmaavat* and *Gully Boy*. His most recent release, the two-part spy thriller *Dhurandhar*, ranks among the highest-grossing Indian films of recent years.
This is not the first time FWICE has taken coordinated action against high-profile industry figures, though such moves remain rare. The organization has previously called for Indian artists to avoid working with Pakistani performers during periods of heightened cross-border tension, and in 2025 it issued a similar non-work directive against popular actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh after he appeared alongside Pakistani actor Hania Aamir in a Punj-language film.
This current controversy is also not the first public pushback Singh has faced in his career. In 2025, he drew widespread criticism for mimicking a sacred cultural ritual sequence from the hit Kannada film *Kantara* during a public film festival appearance. Critics accused him of disrespecting the sequence’s cultural significance, and Singh ultimately issued a public apology to resolve the backlash.