Jio Studios and B62 Studios’ Aditya Dhar directed “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” has exploded into a box-office phenomenon, pushing Hindi cinema back into the spotlight and giving exhibitors the kind of week‑one numbers they have not seen even in the Pathaan–Jawan–Animal wave. Its rise comes amid public silence from several veteran Bollywood stars, loud praise from southern icons and a heated debate over propaganda in mainstream spy films.
Record-breaking run
In its first eight days, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” raced past about ₹1,088 crore worldwide, putting it among the five highest-grossing Indian films ever and setting a new standard for an Indian movie’s first week in global release. Official BO estimates place its week-one world-wide gross at $117 mn ,with India driving most of the revenue and overseas markets adding a powerful opening.
The release pattern shows the scale of the bet. Trade data points to around 2,200 cinemas and 3,000 screens overseas, including not just core hubs such as North America and the United Kingdom but also newer territories like Uruguay, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Chile, Mexico and Cyprus. In North America, the Moviegoers Entertainment release opened to an estimated $9.57 mn for the weekend and $13.5 mn over four days – big numbers for a Hindi-language spy thriller.
With $117 million dollars in its first week, including roughly $30 million from overseas markets, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ has cemented its place among the biggest theatrical successes in Indian cinema history. Crucially, these numbers have been achieved without China and Middle East in play.
Trade trackers note that ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is also the fastest Indian film to reach the $30‑million‑ overseas mark, doing so in just eight days, with North America alone contributing more than 18 million dollars and now poised to become the highest-grossing territory ever for an Indian title. In the United Kingdom, the film has crossed about £2.75 million to rank among the top five Indian releases of all time, while record-breaking grosses in so‑called secondary markets – around $800,000 in Germany and $500,000 in Singapore – show how deeply the film is penetrating beyond traditional diaspora hubs.
Finland has become an unlikely footnote in Dhurandhar’s global story. For most Indian releases, the territory barely registers, often topping out at a few thousand euros in gross, but Dhurandhar: The Revenge has already taken in around €36,000 there, several times the usual benchmark. That spike comes just weeks after Finnish President Alexander Stubb revealed he had watched Dhurandhar on his son’s recommendation, said he was “happy to fight against terrorism” and “looking forward to the sequel,” and then joked that his Instagram “went huge” in India once he mentioned the film – remarks that went viral after he was seen discussing the movie with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during a jog in London’s Hyde Park. High-stakes spy saga
The sequel continues the story of undercover RAW officer Hamza Ali Mazari, also known as Jaskirat Singh Rangi and played by Ranveer Singh, as he digs deeper into Karachi’s underworld and Pakistani politics while seeking revenge for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The film brings back Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal and others, building on the first part’s mix of espionage drama, gang rivalries and ideology in a film that runs just under four hours.
Reviews are split. Some critics dismiss it as a ‘violent spy saga’ and ‘naked political propaganda,’ even as they acknowledge its massive scale and polished action. Others, vieweres, in India and overseas, praise its patriotic charge, immersive world‑building, sharply etched characters, big set pieces, Ranveer Singh’s performance and the emotional beats, turning it into a word‑of‑mouth hit despite its length.
From post-COVID slump to surge
The film’s performance comes as Hindi cinema is still stabilising after the pandemic years, when overall Indian box office revenue bounced back but footfalls lagged and a handful of event films carried the Hindi segment. In that phase, the first “Dhurandhar,” released in December 2025, passed roughly ₹1,350 crore worldwide and lifted multiplex footfalls, signalling that large-scale Hindi theatrical releases could still draw crowds.
Trade analysts now talk about the two “Dhurandhar” films as a dividing line, describing projects as “before Dhurandhar” and “after Dhurandhar” because the franchise has shown how far a Hindi film can go without relying on romance, songs and familiar comfort elements. The duology has set fresh benchmarks for openings, weekday holds and global reach. Overseas push and a new playbook
The franchise has also shifted expectations abroad. The first film showed that a thriller set entirely in Pakistan could cross ₹1,000 crore and become India’s top Hindi-language grosser even while skipping a once-crucial overseas corridor. The follow-up has again surged across North America, Europe and East Asia, and ranks near the top in both major and “secondary” markets.
Producers and distributors are already watching the emerging model: back politically charged material, accept that some regions may block it, and use wider day-and-date releases and new territories to close the gap. In a streaming-driven era, the film also shows that regional restrictions do not need to limit a title’s global impact if trailers, social media and diaspora chatter build demand elsewhere. Southern stars boost momentum
Endorsements from the South have amplified the film’s momentum. Superstar Rajinikanth has called “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” a “box office ka baap” and “must-watch” for Indians, praise that spread widely online and that director Aditya Dhar called a blessing. “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli praised the film in a detailed note, saying it tops the first part “in scale and soul” and lauding Dhar’s decision to attempt a nearly four-hour epic.
Telugu star Mahesh Babu has described the film as “an explosion executed with perfect precision” and “standing-ovation worthy,” highlighting Singh’s performance and Shashwat Sachdev’s score. Those endorsements from Rajinikanth, Rajamouli, Mahesh Babu and others such as Jr NTR and Allu Arjun have given the film a rare pan-India sheen and underlined the growing sway of southern voices in shaping national box office narratives. Divisive but dominant
On X, formerly Twitter, the film has sparked a flood of reactions. Fans have called it “grand” and “gritty” and hailed it as Ranveer Singh’s best work, while detractors have labelled it emotionally thin and accused it of fanning polarisation. The film has faced a complaint from a Sikh group over a scene it says disrespects Gurbani, and Aditya Dhar has publicly denied claims based on AI-edited clips that misrepresent scenes from the film.
The controversies have kept the movie constantly in the public eye. Fan videos, box-office threads and political debates have turned “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” into a talking point well beyond cinema halls, making its off-screen disputes part of its appeal and giving exhibitors sustained demand.
Jio Studios’ big bet pays off
For Jio Studios president Jyoti Deshpande, the franchise is a test case for a sharper strategy: fewer films, bigger bets and what she calls “massive cinematic excellence” designed to drag audiences back to theatres. In a Pickle cover feature, Jyoti Deshpande has traced that strategy back to her three-decade journey from single-screen distribution to a role at the centre of Reliance’s media push, in a country that now leads the world in data consumption.
Jyoti Deshpande has said she doubled down on Aditya Dhar’s two-part script – set entirely in Pakistan and first narrated from a terrorist’s point of view – by shooting it in one go before splitting it into two films. The first “Dhurandhar” and its Netflix run, followed by “The Revenge” reaching about ₹1,000 crore in record time, have strengthened her case that Indian stories told “authentically and unapologetically” can travel without being reshaped for Western tastes.
The release plan itself was disruptive. Jio Studios shot both parts together and scheduled them three months apart, so the first ‘Dhurandhar’ was still playing in cinemas when ‘The Revenge’ arrived, even after its massive OTT debut. By revealing the sequel’s title, trailer and date at the end of the first film, the franchise never really left the news cycle, embedding itself in popular culture from December 2025 onward – a high-conviction, all‑in strategy many studios are now expected to copy going forward.
It is, in many ways, a case study in conviction and self-belief – in both storytelling and distribution. When every creative and commercial choice is aligned to a single, shared vision, as it was on ‘Dhurandhar,’ the result is not just a hit but a watershed, era-defining moment for the industry. From ‘Mughal‑e‑Azam’ and ‘Sholay’ to the ‘Baahubali’ saga and now the ‘Dhurandhar’ franchise, these four are widely seen as era‑defining milestones of Indian cinema.
Three-year streak at the top
“Dhurandhar: The Revenge” also caps a three-year streak for Jio Studios. In 2024, horror comedy “Stree 2” crossed ₹500 crore in India and went on to become the first Hindi film to top ₹600 crore in a single language. In 2025, the first “Dhurandhar” hit the ₹500-crore India-net mark in about 15 days and ran in theatres for 100 days, a rarity in the multiplex era.
Now, the sequel has entered the ₹500-crore India-net club within its first week, giving the studio three straight years with the country’s biggest Hindi releases. For theatre owners and talent, that consistency suggests that a studio-led approach, rather than a star-led one, may be driving the current phase of Hindi cinema. Old debates, new targets
American studios spent decades churning out Cold War thrillers in which Soviet or Russian agents were the stock villains, and scholars have long argued that those films often mirrored U.S. foreign policy lines.
The James Bond franchise has similarly been read as a showcase of British soft power, built around an elite spy safeguarding national interests while critics debate its imperial and sexist undertones. Against that history, the backlash to a single Indian spy series can look selective, and the more useful question may be how films signal their politics and how open audiences are to arguing about them.
Raising the bar for 2026
“Dhurandhar: The Revenge” also raises the bar for a crowded 2026 slate. Trade previews point to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Love & War,” Yash-led action film “Toxic,” Salman Khan’s “Maatrubhoomi,” Shah Rukh Khan’s “King,” and Namit Malhotra’s “Ramayan,” a two-part mythological epic directed by Nitesh Tiwari and billed as one of the most expensive Indian productions to date. “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” has already shown that a nearly four-hour, politically charged Hindi spy film can behave like a global tentpole, supported by aggressive overseas releases and a clear studio vision. How “King,” “Love & War,” “Toxic” and “Ramayan” perform against that new benchmark will help decide whether this moment is remembered as a one-off surge – or as the start of a lasting new era for Hindi cinema.
