Releasing this week is Dhurandhar, a big-budget spy action thriller, starring Ranveer Singh in the lead of an ensemble cast. The film carries some expectations, which mainly come from the director coming off a highly successful film and the high costs, which are visible in the scale of the film. Unfortunately, those expectations don’t seem to be translating into real traction at the box office.
The advances for the film are low, with around Rs. 5 crore nett sold for the first day so far. The final tally may reach around Rs. 6 crore nett. Within these numbers, the sales are heavily skewed towards national chains, where the film is headed for 115K tickets in sales. Even there, it is PVRINOX which is driving the sales, with Cinepolis lower than the usual ratio. There are some block bookings; those may be throwing off the ratios a bit. From the advances, the film is looking at opening day in the low-mid teens. With a favourable reception, it could push it a bit higher in the evening.
Ideally, the film should have had double the amount of sales it has now, but then that was always going to be difficult, considering the genre and style of the film. Some of the biggest grossers from Bollywood are spy films like Pathaan and Tiger, but those are padded with commercial elements, star-driven and have treatment of music and action similar to masala entertainers. Unlike those, this film is more toward realism, which has a far limited audience. The marketing hasn’t helped either; the promos have emphasised style over narrative clarity. From what’s visible, the film seems to revolve around a gang war and a government crackdown in Pakistan. But how any of this connects to India hasn’t been clearly communicated, further limiting its pull.
The film was very recently split into a two-parter from one. This decision has significantly eased the budget burden. What was originally a Rs. 400-450 crore single film is now divided into two films, costing a much more manageable Rs. 225-250 crore each. It also improves the recoveries, as the second part offers additional monetisation through non-theatrical rights and ultimately the box office. As a single film, these advances would have been a killer as the recovery was virtually impossible, but now it stands a chance if it can get reception right. That said, it’s crazy that there was enough filmed material to split the film into not two films of 120 minutes or so runtime but over 200 minutes each.
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