Dhurandhar, before and after: Saif says Bollywood ‘needs to be brave’ after Rs 3100 cr hit

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 9, 2026 01:49 PM IST

Dhurandhar earned over Rs 3100 cr at the global box office.

The release of Ranveer Singh-starrer Dhurandhar franchise has created a major shift in Hindi cinema. The two films, released in December 2025 and March 2026, earned over Rs 3100 crore at the global box office, a feat unseen by any Hindi film before this one. In the first six months of 2026, no film has come remotely close to the collection of Dhurandhar The Revenge. The gap between the top 2 Hindi films was quite massive as Dhurandhar 2 earned Rs 1813 crore, and Border 2, which is the second highest earner of the year, earned Rs 450 crore. Now, Saif Ali Khan has said that the industry needs to be more introspective and make braver choices, especially in the post-Dhurandhar world.

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Saif shared, “People are more excited or interested to see something that is quite passionately made and is a little different and is about… kind of something. I see a time before Dhurandhar and a time after. So it’s up to us if we catch up or not and wake up or not.”

Saif also spoke about some films that appear to take the audience for granted, and how, during production, some things just slip through the cracks. “I think we should get it right more often, and be braver. Just the difference between… I’ll go back to the popularity and the commercial success of something like Dhurandhar, compared to other movies. Why is that gap so huge?”

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He also appreciated the music of the film, which was a combination of a few new tracks, along with a few remixes that were appropriately used within the film. “Instead of hiring a beautiful leading lady to do an item song for you, if you just treat it as a song and have these two girls performing something as you would in a wedding, (it) doesn’t jar the eyes at all, or take the attention away. So clever in some ways,” he said.

Saif Ali Khan hasn’t had a hit at the theatres since 2020’s Tanhaji, which starred Ajay Devgn in the lead role. Since then, his films Jawaani Jaaneman, Bunty Aur Babli 2, Vikram Vedha have all performed badly at the box office. Adipurush, which starred Prabhas in the lead role, earned Rs 393 crore worldwide, but was seen as a failure at the box office. Similarly, Devara Part 1, which starred Jr NTR and Janhvi Kapoor, claimed to make Rs 428 crore at the global box office, but in India, the film made Rs 292 crore, which wasn’t seen as a massive figure considering its high-budget production.