What changed and why was the change necessary?

*this article contains spoilers from the movie

Since past 6 months, there have been huge discussions and debates around one particular cinema and I don't need to tell you it's name, you already know it.

Dhurandhar has changed the dynamics of cinema consumption in this country. No matter how much you disagree, the results of the movies in the coming years will be a thorough contradiction of your current denial. The question arises that why such a thing happened suddenly out of nowhere. If we are being honest, most of the analysts were not even considering Dhurandhar to be one of the Top 10 highest grossing bollywood movies of 2025 and it turned out not to be the highest grossing Bollywood movie of 2025, but the highest grossing Bollywood movie ever in the history of Hindi cinema. Word of mouth surely played a role but never have word of mouth ever played such a drastic role at this big level such that a film which opened at 25 crores nett, finished at almost 900 crores nett (1400 crores worldwide). And by now I am talking about the 1st part only, the sequel is not stopping anywhere before 1200 crores nett collection (worldwide maybe around 1900 crores).

What happened such that a story starring Ranveer Singh, an actor who was repeatedly ridiculed and trolled for his offscreen antics and his personal life, was on a spree of unsuccessfull films post pandemic, became the higest grossing actor of Indian Cinema with 2 films in just a span of 4 months?

What happened such that a dircetor like Aditya Dhar, who despite giving a blockbuster and national award winning film like URI in his debut, struggled to get financers for his second film Ashwathhamma (which was ultimately shelved) and also struggled to get funds to finish Dhurandhar such that both he and Singh had to put their own money to complete the shooting of the movie, and now his name is taken with the likes of SS Rajamouli and Sandeep Reddy Vanga.

I am no expert neither do I guarantee these to be the exact reasons for Dhurandhar's success, these are just my analysis from what I have noticed from the reactions around me and from the film. They may be wrong or you may disagree with them, it's your opinion, we all here should have no problem in agreeing in disagreeing with each other. Right?

1) Collective Frustration towards Mediocrity

Honestly tell me, when was the last good action film you watched from Indian cinema? Many will say KILL, yes, I do agree, technically that movie was excellent with the stunts and kudos to the makers for attempting something like that. But there's one mistake we all do, by action, we only think that it's all about the sets, stunts, physical agility of the actors, aura farming etc. and we always ignore the emotion behind the action as the reason why the audience will want to see the hero mercilessly beating the villian and his gang. In KILL, the plot was wafer thin and whole focus was on action and brutality. Personally I felt every character was not established properly and the stakes also did never felt that high. Some people will say MARCO, again I did find that also bland and guilty pleasure. I don't know about others but for me personally, showing pools of blood flowing, children's skulls being crushed repeatedly, ambical cord of a new born baby being torn out .etc. all these things had no effect because again like KILL, none of the characters felt relatable (And when I say relatable please don't bring out bogus arguments like "BATMAN TUJHE KAISE RELATABLE LAGTA HAI TU TOH BILLIONAIRE NAHI HAI USKE TARAH". When we find character relatable, we simply mean that the interal struggles of that character seem familiar to us.). MARCO felt like it was cashing out on the violent cinema wave started by ANIMAL and that's why despite children and babies being butchered on screen had no effect on me (No, I am no sadist, it's just that I know these people are acting on screen and if there is no definite writing to give the required shock value, then you just cannot convince me to even care for these characters).

And from the ANIMAL wave thing, let's come directly to ANIMAL. Anyone who has read my article on ANIMAL just knows how much I loved that film, infact, even today also I personally love that film more than DHURANDHAR. ANIMAL was a perfect film in every aspect for me. But again, my personal views have nothing to do with the wider audience. ANIMAL no doubt also brought a shift in action cinema where people started to prioritize emotions and sync them with actions of the characters. However many useless films also came which tried to be direct rip off of Animal or basically tried to ape every tactic of Animal but none of them succeeded. ANIMAL also faced a similar wave of criticism like DHURANDHAR (about which we will discuss in further points) and it also went to amass a huge 500 crores nett (900+ crores worldwide) and became a trend just 2 years before DHURANDHAR. The only thing that stopped ANIMAL to go at such a level like DHURANDHAR, as the subject was not family friendly at some levels in this country (yes, I am talking about a family full of adults, not a Rajshri kind of family film) and we all know the reputation Sandeep Reddy Vanga's films enjoy among some (NOT ALL) female audiences (I am not telling that the film is misogynist, it's just something I have witnessed at ground level). Also, ANIMAL didn't have enough action sequences apart from the Arjan Vailly song and Climax fight. The film was emotional heavy based on characters written by the director at a personal level that's why the film worked at a universal level.

Now apart from these 3 films, if we talk about spy films, I don't want to use any rude words for anyone, but we all know the kind of thrash we were served in the name of spy films from Bollywood. I won't speak much, the second last film of that film Pakistani PM playing Jana Gana Mana in Pakistan's parliament on Pakistan's inependence day happily, after our hero, an Indian RAW agent along with his isi agent wife saved Pakistan PM and parliament from an ex-isi agent's attack. Now just think about it. This was expected to be not only accepted, but also enjoyed by us in cinema halls after paying 400-500 bucks for the tickets. Infact, the latest film in this universe which is running helter skelter after DHURANDHAR, could be released as a proper comedy film, with the same aman-ki-asha trope, green screen action, female agents dancing on beach. etc. Basically, the film has the potential to become the GUNDA of this generation. What Mithun Chakraborty's GUNDA (if you haven't heard about this masterpiece then stop calling yourself a cinema lover) was for Action films, this latest film from the bollywood spy universe has the potential of becoming the same thing for spy films in India.

Jokes apart, DHURANDHAR has actually made this universe films look like jokes or parodies. Most of the audience who aren't familiar with world cinema, got a taste of international level action in DHURANDHAR where the stakes actually felt risky for our lead and the stunts were looking like something that took efforts to be done, not simply rendered in VFX (not at all saying that VFX rendering is an easy job, I am just talking about the efforts made by the director, actors and the action crew). Plus the sound design in those scenes were something that deserve a seperate article altogether. Syncing the bullet sounds with the bgm beats and choosing a vintage song with a rap to be played during those scenes require a next level coordination between the director and the music director (Example - Wedding Shootout in Part 1 during Ramba Ho, Unknown Gunmen chapter in Part 2 during Hum Pyaar Karne Wale and Main aur Tu). There are many factors in the action scenes such as in the Part 1 ending where Na De Dil Pardesi Nu was being played with Hamza alone fighting 3 people while driving the car and he not only has to drive it, but also to crash it at a particular point, these things make the adrenaline rush and the build up to these scenes are also something to lookout for. Like before that scene, when Rehman Dakait agrees with Major Iqbal to plan something like 26/11 again in India, that's the point, where not only Hamza, but we also as an audience (who enjoyed Rehman Dakait till now, thanks to Akshaye Khanna's generational act) collectively decide "No. This is the point Rehman Dakait needs to be eleminated!". I have stated just one thing, there are plentry of scenes like these which prove that DHURANDHAR deserves the respect it is getting today from the audience today after all the mediocrity they have received in the name of action films.

2) The Propaganda Boomerang

Before someone accuses me, let me tell you, yes, I felt that there was a certain section in the film that was written particularly to praise the current ruling governmentof the country and nobody disagrees that how much problems were faced by the common people during demonetization .etc. But is there any provision written where a filmmaker cannot praise his favorite politicians in his movie, which is an individual property? Yes, questioning the system and it's flaws is necessary in some films and some film even actually do it efficiently. But from when, showing the achievements of the country in a movie became a crime? America made a Top Gun Maverick which displayed it's Air Force's valour in a very positive light. Similary Dhurandhar is made to show the people, who leave their everything to go to an enemy nation, where they know that if caught, their fate would be much worse than death, so that we could reside safely in our country and the kind of trauma and internal scars they face there is unthinkable.

Our lead character's fate was so much miserable that he had 2 families and in the end, he was seperated from both of them. This was just one story fictionalised as we never know how many Jaskirats would be living the life of another Hamza in which corner of the world to ensure the safety of our motherland. Many are calling it a Nationalist Propaganda. I mean why is that even a problem? Forget problem, why is that even an existing term? From when has been showing our country in a good light is being termed as a PROPAGANDA? And if you are calling a 7 hour story Propaganda just because 7 seconds glimpse of Narendra Modi then the problem lies with you, like that boomer uncle at wedding pointing out every smallest to smallest mistake made by the bride's side. And even pointing it out is not wrong, you have every right of criticism, but problem arises when these same people keep quite on similar silms come that blatantly justify terrorism and show them as victims of the brutality of Indian Army. Haider, for example, in the name of being a Hamlet adaptation, was completely made to justify the seperatist view on Kashmir, was lapped up by these same critics and influencers, with some people calling it as a masterpiece. Even by technical terms, I agree that Haider was a masterpiece, with the performances, screenplay, music, cinematography, everything being topnotch. However the deeply problematic aspects of the film cannot be ignored. And that's exactly why Vishal Bharadwaj recently said that it is impossible to make a film like Haider today as the audiences aren't that much naive like they used to be then.

Another term used for DHURANDHAR is hateful cinema. Hateful against whom? Against terrorism? Then why the F*** IS THAT A PROBLEM FOR YOU? Basically all these people do was to repeatedly telling the audience not to watch DHURANDHAR by calling it propaganda and hateful cinema and it had a reverse effect as it created a sense of urgency in them to watch it as the films these same people are calling masterpiece nowadays are not even being watched by their own family members, forget about ticket buying audiences.

3) People saw Characters & heard Music, not fillers

When was the last time you saw even the smallest characters in a film becoming the talk of the town? I mean even the auto rickshaw character had so many meme templates and his total screentime was in seconds, not even minutes also. Such a thing happened back during Sholay where characters like Samba or Kaalia became cult characters. Here, even small characters like Lulli Dakait, Rizwan .etc. have became fan favorites. That is the power of good writing. The audience was heavily invested in the story of each individual. Whereas people don't even remember the character names from recent films, here the audience is demanding spin off films for Jameel Jamali, Alam Bhai, Brigadier Jahangir .etc . That is the impact a film has on the audience where the characters are made to be experienced, rather than just act as fillers, whose only motivation is to hype the hero like something we usually see in today's South movies with dialogues like "tum aandhi ko kaid nahi kar sakte wo toh toofaan hai uske baare main tum jaante nahi ho" .etc. and these lines are spoken by notable actors from various industries (in the name of this new disease called PAN INDIA FILMS) to hype the hero for no reason. Here, each character completes it's arc and that's why they all are remembered by the audience in the long run.

Infact the music here itself acts as a character which elevates the scenes, instead of acting as a roadblock in the screenplay. Just think about the recent films where songs are just added for the sake of being sell the music rights, even if it means a random scene where 2 rival agents will start dancing in a bar for absolute no reason. Here, the albums feel very much versatile as it had a song for every genre and situation and by that I mean both the albums, Part 1 and Part 2. One more commendable quality of the album is that maximum songs are situational, still they have stayed with the audience even after the movie.

So what exactly Changed?

The most important that has changed with Dhurandhar is that after this there will be no more acceptance of mediocre products in the action or espionage genre. Many will argue that even after DHURANDHAR, films like BORDER 2 and BHOOTH BANGLA were Hits. First of all, BHOOTH BANGLA has nothing to do with this, it is a comedy film with the Akshay Kumar - Priyadarshan stamp which itself was the USP of the film and made it a success. As for BORDER 2, nostalgia sells to this date also. If nostalgia is sold properly, then no doubt people will accept it wholeheartedly. But other than that, there has been a heavy ideological shift of the audience. Nationalism was always sold to Indians and they even took it up. However, this time what they want is Unapologetic Nationalism, without any sugarcoating, calling spade a spade, not something like aman ki asha type of stuff or forced secularism. And with the kind of backlash the spy univere is getting after DHURANDHAR just confirms it and it's not only about DHURANDHAR, this shift has been in motion since past few years after the release of THE KASHMIR FILES. But what's happening now, is that mediocrity won't be tolerated, even by those who cater to this same ideology. Some films like THE BENGAL FILES or TAJ STORY or the biopic on Yogi Adityanath also came and the public completely rejected these films as they know who are genuinely making an effort to tell a story and who are making ridiculous cashgrabs. DHURANDHAR did something which was not done till now. It presented radical nationalist ideology in a technically flawless way such that even those who criticized the film, were forced to appreciate it's technical brilliance.

And it was quite evident as you can see the support from the industry from which DHURANDHAR belonged .i.e Bollywood, was almost non-existent, you may find the names of hardly 3 to 4 major A - list actors or directors appreciating DHURANDHAR. Even the critics who considered themselves invincible made sure that DHURANDHAR collapses in it's first weekend, but after a point, the audiences saw it as their duty to protect this film from the hands who wanted to do it dirty and rest is just for the history books. And this is how soft power influencing works. America has given the world multiple films where, it saves the world at the end of the day. So when a film like DHURANDHAR reaches the global level, it helps us to set a positive narrative about India and it's fight against terrosrism, infront of the whole world.

My final Opinion on Dhurandhar

Keeping it simple, I won't say that I liked Dhurandhar series, but I would rather say that I am in love with the series. I haven't seen something so intricately planned and executed so flawlessly. There were multiple places where the film had the potential to be jingoistic and contrarily, there were also places where it could have became another aman ki tamasha, Aditya Dhar has brilliantly kept the balance intact throughout the 7 hours of the whole story. There is not a single moment that felt out of place and felt over exaggerated.

From the cast, to the crew, to the technicians, everyone has given their 200% for every scene in this film. The writing of this film looks like something that transcends perfection. The story is not even about terrorism only, because more than that, this story is about an individual who has been destroyed in the worst way possible by the system, rises from the ashes and turns out to be a force to be reckoned. It was the story about his self belief being stronger than any other weapon, his destiny being painful but legendary, his purpose of serving his motherland going beyond any moral value, his every scar being his fuel for giving the next scar to the enemy and even after all this, in the end, his fate was catastrophic if you see ti from the lens of a normal human being, but for a soldier, seeing his loved ones safe is a bigger priority than being near them and this film beautifully explains the Bhagwad Geeta quotes that appear at the start of each film. That's why on a philosphical level also, Dhurandhar just won my heart and it keeps winning my heart every time I rewatch it.

Now for just formality I will praise the performances because the kind of work they have done, they all are beyond any praise or applause. Ranveer Singh has nothing left to prove to anyone in this world. He just proved that no matter what he does offscreen, once the camera starts rolling, he makes sure the one watching the film would forget what he is in real life (and I am not telling that he's a bad person, he surely would be a good human being, it's just his playful personality brings problems for him sometimes). Every shade of Jaskirat is played by him with such a brilliance that I just wanted to hug him by the end of the movie. He has etched his name in the history books after this role. Akshaye Khanna is that one actor who is completely detached from the illusion of fame. He just came, made sure to steal every scene he features in, left. His character despite being a bit dumb in the film, aura farmed every scene and that's where you know how legendary actor he is. Arjun Rampal looked legit scary and intimidating in the Part 1 where in some scenes, especially in the 26/11 scene, I wanted to k*ll him bare hands and that's atestament to the kind of acting he has done as the antagonist. Yes, I know some may feel his character was butchered in the 2nd Part, but it was never meant to be an aura farmer like Rehman Dakait, it was meant to be humiliated and ridiculed and still Rampal managed to make Major Iqbal a highlight of the story through his performance. Sanjay Dutt has been lately wasted in many films but Aditya Dhar has utilized him in his full potential. Most of the banter he has with other characters generate the loudest laughs in my theatre during both the films, but at the same time, SP Chaudhry Aslam's character felt despicable and not someone who could be trusted (according to the film, I don't know about Chaudhry Aslam's real life) and Sanjay Dutt perfectly carried out this balance throughout the story. I remember Ranveer Singh telling that he wanted to show the world that India also has actors like R Madhavan and after watching the film, I can clearly understand why he said that. Indian cinema is indeed blessed to have an actor like R Madhavan and the kind of performer he is, he portrayed a very complex character like Ajay Sanyal so brilliantly that we exactly knew the moments when that character is angry, when he is vulnerable, when he is satisfied, the nuances were exemplery. Apart from all of them, the real Dhurandhar of the film .i,e Rakesh Bedi was the one without whom the film wouldn't have felt the same. The writing of his character was just legendary and being the kind of veteran he is, bringing house down with laughter is no big deal for him, but having that cunning aura throughout the film, when stalwarts like the above mentioned were there in the film, shows that what actors with the much needed experience can bring to the table. This article would be dragged if I talk about every actor as every actor deserves their segment for praise for the excellent work they have done, be it Manav Gohil or Danish Pandor or Gaurav Gera or Sara Arjun or Raj Zutshi, etc. everyone did a kind of work that proves that Indian cinema is lucky to have actors like these who make you feel that the money you are paying at the ticket window is worth every buck.

Without talking much about the man who created this monster, .i.e Aditya Dhar, I would just like to say that Indianc Cinema will have it's own unique identity as long as creators like him continue to strive. I won't say much about him as I am nobody to say anything on him, he is that great of a director.

Thanks for reading!