Dhurandhar has closed its first week at ₹207.25 crore nett and entered its second week with an intensity the Hindi film trade has not witnessed in years, transforming from a strong non-holiday opener into a national phenomenon driven by political conversation, primetime visibility, and remarkable word of mouth. The stability displayed from Tuesday to Thursday, with each day collecting ₹27 crore nett, is almost unheard of for a film without a traditional “superstar” at the center of its marketing. This flat midweek trend has placed Dhurandhar in a category reserved for only a handful of leg-driven India-wide blockbusters in the last decade, such as Uri: The Surgical Strike, Tanhaji and The Kashmir Files — films that demonstrated this same unshakeable pattern of weekday momentum.
The internal pattern of the first seven days highlights why the trade is recalibrating expectations. Dhurandhar opened with ₹28 crore, grew to ₹32 crore on Saturday and ₹43 crore on Sunday, corrected on Monday to a strong ₹23.25 crore — a 45% slide that remains healthier than typical Monday corrections — and then defied conventional drop curves by staying locked at ₹27 crore for three consecutive days. Even major star-driven spectacles do not demonstrate this kind of flatlining, as midweek numbers for most films usually see a 10–15% day-on-day erosion.
The film has now reached a point where its second Friday has emerged as the biggest conversation point in the industry. It is headed toward a number that challenges — and in some metrics surpasses — the second-Friday performance of giants like Pushpa 2, Jawan, and Stree 2. For context, Jawan, despite having the strongest post-opening trend for Shah Rukh Khan, progressed from a ₹23.83 crore Thursday to a ₹21.90 crore Friday. Stree 2, the highest-grossing original Hindi film in history, moved from ₹20.40 crore on Day 7 to ₹18.20 crore on Day 8. Chhaava, the biggest Hindi success of 2025 with a ₹601 crore final India nett, also saw a standard second-Friday dip. Dhurandhar, on the other hand, is heading into its second Friday aiming to match or exceed its Thursday number of ₹27 crore — an achievement that places it in extremely rare company, particularly as it faces fresh competition today from the mass-heavy Akhanda 2.
The benchmark that makes this comparison even more striking is Pushpa 2. As a pan-India juggernaut, Pushpa 2 collected ₹27 crore on Day 8 and ₹27.50 crore on its second Friday, but it did so after a massive first week of ₹433.50 crore. The fact that Dhurandhar, a Hindi-origin film without a multilingual base, is matching that number from a ₹207 crore starting point indicates a retention ratio nearly double that of the largest Indian blockbusters relative to their first-week base. Films that achieve or surpass their Day 7 numbers on Day 8 tend to be propelled by an external cultural trigger. The Kashmir Files demonstrated this pattern, as did The Kerala Story. Dhurandhar has now joined this list, powered by extensive television debate, social media virality, and a political theme that has sparked discussions across states.
This stability has also opened the door to a possibility no original Hindi film has ever achieved: a ₹200 crore second week. The closest in this category are Stree 2, which delivered a historic ₹453.60 crore in Week Two, and Tanhaji, which remained remarkably strong deep into its run. But Dhurandhar’s uniform midweek and its politically charged amplification give it a different trajectory — more aligned with films that accelerate in the second week rather than taper. A Friday in the ₹27–28 crore range, followed by a Saturday in the ₹35–38 crore bracket and a Sunday exceeding ₹40 crore, puts Dhurandhar’s Week Two potential squarely in the ₹185–205 crore zone. Achieving this would place it among the strongest second weeks ever recorded in Indian box office history, seated alongside Pushpa 2, Baahubali 2, and KGF 2.
Placing Dhurandhar in the broader landscape of India’s biggest nett earners is essential to understand its evolving position. While the all-time top performers — Pushpa 2 (₹1234 crore), Baahubali 2 (₹1030 crore), KGF 2 (₹859 crore), RRR (₹782 crore), Kalki 2898 AD (₹646 crore), and Jawan (₹640 crore) — operate in a framework driven by massive South Indian markets and multilingual spread, Dhurandhar’s closest comparative field lies in original Hindi films. Stree 2 stands as a major benchmark, while Chhaava currently holds the 2025 Hindi crown at ₹601 crore nett. Dhurandhar now legitimately enters the conversation around whether a Hindi-origin film, without regional anchors, can challenge the ₹600 crore zone — a target that seemed unthinkable on Day 1.
The film’s extraordinary momentum is driven largely by its political heat, which has made it the most talked-about Hindi title of 2025. It resembles the way certain films move from early adopters to late audiences who enter the cycle only after a topic becomes impossible to ignore. This has been visible in Tier-2 and Tier-3 circuits, where midweek occupancy approached weekend levels. The confirmed existence of Dhurandhar Part 2, slated for March 2026, adds another strategic layer. As with franchises like KGF and Baahubali, the cliffhanger approach and geopolitical backdrop are encouraging repeat viewings, with audiences dissecting narrative setups and anticipating how the conflict escalates in the sequel.
The lifetime projection range has widened accordingly. A conservative scenario places Dhurandhar at ₹420–450 crore, assuming a standard Week 3 correction. The mid-case scenario, realistic if Week Two crosses ₹180 crore, sits in the ₹530–560 crore band. A high-case scenario emerges above ₹620 crore — a threshold that becomes plausible only if Dhurandhar maintains its flat trend through the second week and successfully eclipses Chhaava. The key point the trade is aligned on is that Dhurandhar is now the only Hindi film of 2025 with a realistic shot at the ₹600 crore club — a film no one expected to be in this conversation on Day 1.
With the second Friday poised to rewrite post-opening benchmarks, the next seventy-two hours will determine whether Dhurandhar simply becomes a major blockbuster or ascends into the rare historic tier occupied by the highest-earning original Hindi films of all time.
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