DHURANDHAR 2 PAID PREVIEWS IGNITE INDIA: ₹40+ CRORE ON DAY ZERO, BOLLYWOOD WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
Ranveer Singh's spy blockbuster kicks off paid previews on the evening of March 18 — obliterating every record Bollywood has ever set, a full day before it even officially releases.
Forget the release date — Bollywood's biggest storm of 2026 has already made landfall. Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh, began its special paid preview screenings on the evening of Wednesday, March 18, and the response has been nothing short of a nationwide earthquake. According to Sacnilk, the film recorded a staggering ₹40.70 crore just from its paid preview shows on March 18 alonet — a number that no Bollywood film has ever come close to on a single pre-release evening. For context, the previous best paid preview record from a Hindi film was just ₹8.75 crore, set by Stree 2 in 2024. Dhurandhar 2 didn't just break that record — it demolished it by nearly 5x. On Book My Show, the Movie is getting searched a lot.
The film officially hits screens worldwide on March 19, 2026, coinciding with the triple festive bonanza of Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, and Eid al-Fitr. But fans simply couldn't wait.
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EARLY REVIEWS & REACTIONS- THE VERDICT IS IN
The paid preview audience has delivered a thunderous verdict. Viral posts from early screenings declared it "the Baahubali 2 of this era," with one widely-shared review calling the first half "absolutely zabardast — from the very first frame, the film grabs your attention and never lets go." Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, after watching the film, took to X and went completely unfiltered — calling it a "SHOLAY x 100 level magnificence" and claiming it makes every great Indian film from Mughal-E-Azam onwards look like a TV serial. An early overseas review gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars, with the reviewer writing that despite the nearly 4-hour runtime, the film never feels boring, praising the screenplay as outstanding and the direction as mind-blowing Director Aditya Dhar's wife and actress Yami Gautam also shared her experience, revealing she had already watched the film and was left completely overwhelmed — saying "It is beyond extraordinary. I was really emotional. I had to read a script after but I couldn't, I had to watch something but I couldn't." Social media is flooded with fans calling Ranveer Singh's performance his career-best, with the phrase "Ranveer in Beast Mode" trending nationally through the evening.
The Hype Is Real — And the Numbers Prove It
Advance sales have crossed ₹29.35 crore by selling over 6.70 lakh tickets across 15,000+ shows, with the combined total for the opening weekend already standing at ₹135+ crore (including block seats). Overseas pre-sales alone are around ₹65 crore for the weekend.
Globally, the film is targeting a worldwide Day 1 gross of ₹225–250 crore, which would make it the second-highest Indian opener of all time — right behind Allu Arjun's Pushpa 2, which grossed around ₹280 crore on its opening day in 2024. That's not just Bollywood territory anymore — that's an all-India conversation.
Record After Record, Falling Like Dominoes
Looking at past benchmarks — Ghajini earned ₹1.5 crore in previews, 3 Idiots did ₹2.75 crore, Chennai Express clocked ₹6.75 crore, and Stree 2 reached ₹8.75 crore. Every one of those films went on to become a record-breaking blockbuster. Dhurandhar 2 has obliterated all of them before its first official show.
Jawan previously held the record for highest advance booking at ₹28.75 crore nett — Dhurandhar 2 crossed ₹32 crore nett combining paid previews and Day 1 advances, making it the all-time advance booking record holder in Bollywood.
The film also crushed Pawan Kalyan's They Call Him OG, which held the record for the biggest paid preview collection of any Indian film at ₹21 crore net — Dhurandhar 2 blew past that figure days before the previews even started, purely on advance sales.
Theatres Bending Over Backwards
The craze is so massive that cinema halls are doing the unthinkable. Mumbai's legendary Maratha Mandir moved Shah Rukh Khan's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge — which has played at the 11:30 AM slot for decades — to 10:00 AM, just to squeeze in more shows of Dhurandhar 2. Cities like Mumbai have already sold close to 50% of available tickets for the opening phase, Hyderabad is nearing 75% pre-sales, and Bengaluru has crossed around 60% occupancy — all days before the official release.
What to Expect Going Forward
Industry analysts are forecasting an opening day worldwide gross of ₹150–200 crore, with a first weekend potentially crossing ₹500 crore. Dhurandhar 2 also aims to become the first Bollywood film ever to achieve a ₹100 crore+ net opening day in India alone — a milestone the industry has chased for years.
The original Dhurandhar earned nearly ₹900 crore net domestically and crossed ₹1,200 crore worldwide. The sequel, by every metric available tonight, is gunning for something even bigger.
One thing is certain — March 18's evening wasn't just a pre-release. It was the beginning of a box office revolution.
