Iran has turned to Bollywood’s iconic Sholay character Thakur Baldev Singh to make a pointed—and tongue-in-cheek—comment on what it sees as the United Nations’ alleged inability to act decisively in the real world.The Iranian Embassy in India shared a collage of two images on social media, juxtaposing a scene from the Hollywood film Doctor Strange with the famous character Thakur from the 1975 Bollywood blockbuster Sholay.The first image, showing Doctor Strange with multiple arms, was captioned as the “UN according to school books”—apparently symbolising the world body as powerful, capable and equipped with multiple means to act.The second image showed Thakur, played by Sanjeev Kumar in Sholay, whose arms had been cut off in the film. The Embassy captioned it “UN in reality”, using the stark image to suggest that the world organisation is effectively powerless when confronted with major global crises.The visual gag draws on one of the most recognisable scenes in Indian cinema, where Thakur, once a feared and powerful police officer, is left without his arms after being attacked by the film’s antagonist Gabbar Singh.By pairing the two images, Iran sought to contrast the UN’s idealised role as the principal international organisation for maintaining global peace and security with what Tehran portrays as its limited ability to enforce its decisions.The post comes amid growing criticism of the UN system over its handling of conflicts and international crises, with countries frequently accusing the organisation of being constrained by geopolitical divisions and the competing interests of powerful member states.The Embassy’s use of Sholay also adds a distinctly Indian pop-culture flavour to its criticism, turning a familiar Bollywood image into a metaphor for the perceived gap between the UN’s mandate and its ability to act.UN according to school booksUN in reality pic.twitter.com/GQ4gOG8fC0— Iran in India (@Iran_in_India) September 29, 2026