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Just a couple of months ago, director Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar went on a historic run at the box office. What started with Rs 28 crore on the opening day ended with Rs 837 crore net domestically and Rs 1303 crore worldwide. The film, as per trade estimates, earned Rs 500 crore in profit. The Ranveer Singh-led film broke all records and trampled everything in its path, and even forced filmmakers to delay the releases of their films in order to avoid being ignored at the theatres. Now its sequel is coming next month (March 19), and there is no doubt that the second film is starting from a position of power, which the first one never had.
Dhurandhar's theatrical run
According to reports, the budget of the both the film was around Rs 300-350 crore as they were largely shot together. The streaming rights of the first one were sold to Netflix even though Jio Studios, which has Jio Hotstar streaming platform, was the producer. While the streaming giant wanted both parts for a reported price of Rs 150 crore, Dhar and his team believed that they could do wonders with the film. Their instincts proved to be right, and Dhurandhar amassed a behemoth collection.
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Now even if we just consider the Hindi net collection, the makers have around Rs 500 crore in the bank to put towards pushing the sequel, and interestingly enough, the sequel has already started earning for them.
No matter who it has been backed by or who the leading star is, nothing can solidify a film’s position at the box office before release. There are no guarantees in the business, unless the film starts making you money several weeks before it hits the theatres.
First the makers of the film announced that they are changing their music partners from Saregama to T-Series. There is no doubt that T-Series has wider reach when it comes to the market, and they have one of the biggest subscriber bases in the whole world. To serve that huge base, they also have the rights to some of the most popular Indian films that have been released in the past 3 decades. The music from the first film made all kinds of waves.
While it gathered views on YouTube and streams on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, much of the music went viral on social media. For example, the title track of Dhurandhar, or the song ‘Fa9la’ by rapper Flipperachi, was used to death for Instagram reels, posts and stories. The title track has been used to make over 1.1 million reels on the platform, and this is just counting the original version released by the makers of the film. Duplicates and separate versions exist as well, pushing the music to users far beyond the limits of the country. So it only made sense that T-Series paid Rs 28 crore for the music rights.
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The same goes for the streaming rights, because Dhurandhar is now a proven entity. They were on the fence with the first one, and hence they decided to sell to Netflix. Now with no cash problem, it’s only natural that the makers of the film will go to their parent company, JioStudios. That’s another Rs 150 crore in the pockets of the makers, which means that Dhurandhar 2 has already earned Rs 178 crore.
ALSO READ: Manoj Bajpayee defends Neeraj Pandey amid Ghooskhor Pandat row: Here’s why the title led to FIR, legal blowback
Dhurandhar 2 theatrical run predictions
Let’s assume that the film doesn’t do better than the first one and just stays on the same earning pattern. Even then the film is conservatively expected to bring in Rs 200 crore within its first week. The reason why many believe that the film will do better is because the franchise already has committed fans who want to see what happens next. So it’s not an arrow in the dark anymore but a lined-up target. Trade expects the film to do Rs 250 crore in pre-release alone, just like established franchises such as Pushpa, Baahubali and KGF delivered with their sequels.
Again, there are no guarantees that the sequel will do better or as well as Dhurandhar, because the film was also criticised for many of its features. Poor reviews of the film still exist out there, which means that there are many who might not give the sequel the chance they gave to the first one. But looking at the current state of money involved and how much of it is in the black, Dhurandhar 2 is likely to succeed.
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Dhurandhar 2 vs Toxic
Going by the audience interest, there is massive buzz around both Yash’s Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups and Dhurandhar 2. On ticket-booking site, Yash-starrer has around 363K+ likes. However, Dhurandhar, which was recently listed on the platform is quickly going up in terms of interest and have received 106K+ interests.
