I am running short of adjectives to start the box office reporting of Dhurandhar because every day it is pulling off some insane numbers, which doesn’t feel real. No, that’s not because they aren’t “not real” but because they are. Times we are in, that needed to be clarified.
On its Third Friday, Dhurandhar is looking to collect Rs. 20 crore nett. By the end of the day, that number may rise, and it might be that there is no drop at all from Thursday. That’s with the film facing competition from a major new release, Avatar: Fire and Ash, but that hardly seems to have made a dent. Unsurprisingly, this also means another daily box office record for the film, and once again by a ridiculous margin. The next best 3rd Friday is Rs. 12 crore nett by Chhaava.
This Friday numbers have made Rs. 700 crore a lock as the film will be crossing or near to crossing Rs. 600 crore nett by the end of this week. In fact, beating the all-time record for the Highest-grossing Hindi film, currently held by Pushpa 2 (Hindi) at Rs. 738 crore nett, is also virtually a lock, though confirmation will come over the weekend. Rs. 800 crore nett is now in play, which seemed to be pretty much unfathomable for an original Hindi film. Again, the more clarity on the same, it will come over the weekend and then the days ahead, but as things stand today, they are good.
Two weeks ago, when Dhurandhar released, the atmosphere was largely sombre. Pre-sales were not strong, and not much was expected for the long run, despite the film appearing good, due to genre and style limitations. There was also a forced controversy before release on how the lead actor “insulted” sentiments related to Kantara, due to which there were even some “boycott” calls. Then there was further negativity looming from the feeding reports in the industry. In short, obituaries were written, and some were even celebratory.
Cut to today, the film is putting numbers no one imagined from a Bollywood film, let alone something like this, which was dismissed for being “urban action type” that has no takers. It is often said that the box office is unpredictable, which feels like something just said for the sake of saying, because, of course, it can be predicted. But it is runs like Dhurandhar that give the phrase its meaning, because this is a result that simply no one predicted.
