Overview
- Both films remain locked for March 19 release, setting up one of the year’s biggest box-office face-offs.
- Trade chatter and PROCAT projections cite up to 10 crore combined footfalls if both titles overperform, with UFO Cine Media marketing the weekend as “India’s Biggest Cinema Moment Ever.”
- Analysts warn India’s ~10,000 screens could cap each film at roughly 4,500–5,000 screens, increasing the risk of audience cannibalisation despite high demand.
- Public reaction has grown sharply polarised, as Sabeer Bhatia labels Dhurandhar “disgusting” for promoting hate, while Ram Gopal Varma hails the sequel as an “asteroid” that could reset mainstream filmmaking and Shatrughan Sinha calls the first film a masterpiece.
- R. Madhavan points to a Gulf ban driving fans to fly to India to watch the franchise and says similar travel is being planned for the sequel’s opening.