Bollywood Asianculturevulture vibes – All conquering ‘Dhurandhar’ – no let up; end of year tally; review of Dhurandhar

December is surely dedicated to ‘Dhurandhar’, there is absolutely nothing else this month and of course the Mumbai ‘winter’ – just ribbing you folks in properly cold UK (-1C last night, ed), as we also look back on the year…

By Rodrigues C

MUMBAI gets chilly in January – relatively speaking – but it’s been this way since mid-December.

The night temperatures hit 21C degrees (fair summer day in the UK), much higher compared to UK, but much lower for those in Mumbai.

It surely are the best of times in the city, for those who like a chill.

The last big film of the year indeed turned out to be the best.

No one ever expected ‘Dhurandhar’ to be such a monster hit.

Well, all filmy news in India is only about the Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal actioner, almost all. They all star in ‘Dhurandhar’.

Looks like there is nothing else to talk about here in India in terms of films.

And in fact, more than the movie’s lead Singh, it’s Khanna who is gaining eyeballs because he has increased his price for the ‘Drishyam 3’ three-fold to £1.7m, owing to the success of his films ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Chhaava’.

Every actor from the film is getting interviewed. There are even people who are in the limelight for having ‘missed out on the film’.

Several actors, directors, producers are making headlines simply by commenting on the film either positively or negatively.

Yes, this happens in India… watch Indian news channels and you will know why.

The action spy thriller by writer-director Aditya Dhar hit theatres on December 5 and surprised all with a £2.3 million haul.

The next day, a Saturday, it fared even better with collections of about £2.6m, which bloated to £3.5m a day later.

Well, positive word of mouth publicity was helping the film.

From Monday, when most film collections fall drastically, ‘Dhurandhar’ was still making good money. The following Saturday and Sunday the film made £4.3m and £4.7m.

As things stand, the Dhar directorial has collected a cool £60 million net (₹700 crore plus); ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’, ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ and ‘RRR’ are the only other films to have achieved this feat.

Now, in its fourth week, ‘Dhurandhar’ has grossed £90m globally, becoming seventh Indian movie in history to do so.

It has overtaken hits such as ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ and ‘Pathaan’ and is closing in on ‘Jawaan’ to become the biggest Bollywood film, ever.

Its fourth week collections worldwide £4.7m are the highest ever, overtaking the £4.4m of Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa 2-The Rule’.

Other than ‘Dhurandhar’, there wasn’t much happening in December on the big screen. The second biggest offering of the month was supposed to be ‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ featuring Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday.

On day one, December 25, it collected a meagre £640,000 followed by £430,000, £454,000 and £413,000.
Thereafter the collections started falling and have now crossed £2m. The film’s box office run is almost over.

Comedian Kapil Sharma’s December 12 offering ‘Kis Kis Ko Pyaar Karoon 2’ failed up to live up to his reputation. Sharma is a TV sensation in India and has made millions on the small screen but his big screen offering failed miserably collecting just about £152,000 on day one. Though collections rose on the following two days to £206,000 and £239,000 there wasn’t any growth thereafter. Its overall box office collections now stand just £1m.

The coming few days will see ‘Dhurandhar’ turn into the biggest film of 2025.

The war film ‘Ikkis’, which features Bollywood legend Dharmendra who passed away in late November, has been postponed from a Christmas Day release to January 1.

The Year in the rear view mirror…

The second-biggest grosser of the year is Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’ – a prequel to the 2022 ‘Kantara’ – earning over £70.4m.

In third place stands Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Chhaava’ which minted £66.7m. ‘Saiyaara‘ (£49.5m), ‘Coolie‘ (£41.3m), ‘War 2’ (£30.08m), ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’ (£27.02m), ‘Lokah: Chapter 1-Chandra’ (£25.1m), ‘They Call Him OG’ (£24.3m) and ‘Housefull 5’ (£23.8m) complete the top 10 line up of the year.

But the most profitable film of the year is believed to be a Gujarati devotional drama ‘Laalo Krishna Sada Sahaayate’ – made on a budget of just £41,000 – it collected £9.9m.

The film’s gross profit of around 24,000 per cent makes it the most profitable film in India behind the £1.2m budgeted ‘Secret Superstar’ which minted £74.3m, a 6,000 per cent profit.

Some of the biggest movies of 2026 will include ‘Ramayana’ (Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi), ‘King’ (Shah Rukh Khan, Suhana Khan), Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Love and War’ (Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal), ‘Mardaani 3’ (Rani Mukerji), ‘Battle of Galwan’ (Salman Khan, Chitrangda Singh), Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘O’ Romeo’ (Shahid Kapoor, Tripti Dimri), ‘The Raja Saab’ (Prabhas), ‘Drishyam 3’ (Ajay Devgn), ‘Jailer 2’ (Rajinikanth) and of course ‘Dhurandhar 2’ (Ranveer Singh).

It’s planned for a Spring release. So 2026 is bound to be as exciting as 2025.

Let’s wait and watch and get the ball rolling, till then Happy New Year and hang onto your coat/jacket, London/Mumbai!

‘Dhurandhar’ – Hindi action blockbuster of the year (review)

UNRELENTING and intense, ‘Dhurandhar’ is a solid piece of cinema in terms of entertainment. Ranveer Singh is the expert/master/stalwart of the Hindi title.
Essentially, he plays an Indian spy who enters Pakistan and makes his way to a Karachi suburb called Lyari. This is a place where many outsiders have settled and is a sprawling tightly packed neighbourhood, where pretty much anything goes, so long as you have the right (political) connections.
It’s a thrilling ride and a classic gangster/spy arc – ‘Hamza’ (Singh) starts as a nobody and works his way up the crime food chain – of course, we know he has a motive beyond self-aggrandisement and personal power.
Writer-director Aditya Dhar’s trick is to weave real life events (Indian Airlines hijack 1999; Mumbai terror attack 26/11/2008, etc) into this narrative.
For some, this is both compelling and convincing, the first we understand but the second – c’mon, this is still fiction and fantasy – all films are propaganda to some or lesser degree. Respond to it as an honest cinemagoer, nothing else. The performances are outstanding from a stellar cast. Enjoy it!
ACV rating: *** (out of five).
Sailesh Ram