Dhurandhar becomes first Indian film series to cross Rs 30 billion in history in worldwide box office collection

Dubai: Indian cinema has a new milestone to celebrate. The Dhurandhar duology, directed by Aditya Dhar and led by Ranveer Singh, has become the first Indian film series ever to cross Rs 30 billion at the worldwide box office, a landmark that no franchise in the history of Indian cinema had achieved before.

According to trade tracking platform Sacnilk, the combined global gross of both films now stands well above the Rs 30 billion mark, placing the franchise in a category entirely its own.

How the first film built the foundation

When Dhurandhar released on 5 December 2025, trade analysts had measured expectations. The buzz was decent but the doubts were real. What happened next silenced every sceptic.

Audiences embraced the spy action thriller immediately and kept coming back, driving an extraordinary theatrical run that did not slow down for weeks. The film ultimately collected over Rs 840 crore net at the Hindi box office, crossing Rs 10 billion gross domestically, and finished its worldwide run with over Rs 1.3 billion globally. That made it the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of all time and the third biggest without China in the mix.

How the second film shattered the ceiling

Released just four months after its predecessor, Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge arrived with the wind firmly at its back and proceeded to outperform every expectation. The film has amassed well over Rs 1.7 billion globally and is still running in several international markets.

Its domestic performance alone rewrote the record books. Dhurandhar 2 became the first film in Indian cinema history to cross Rs 10 billion net in a single language at the Indian box office.

What makes this milestone significant

The Rs 30 billion figure is remarkable not just for its size but for what it represents. Indian cinema has produced individual blockbusters before, films that crossed Rs 10 billion on the strength of a single release. But sustaining that level of performance across two films, released just months apart, with both individually crossing the four-figure mark, is something no Indian franchise had managed until now.

Here is a quick breakdown of what the duology has achieved:

• First Indian film series to cross Rs 30 billion worldwide

• Only Indian franchise to have two individual films each cross Rs 10 billion

• Dhurandhar 2 is the first Indian film to cross Rs 10 billion net in a single language domestically

• Dhurandhar finished as the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of all time globally

• Both films sustained long theatrical runs driven by repeat viewership and word of mouth

The bigger picture for Indian cinema

What Aditya Dhar and the Dhurandhar franchise have demonstrated is that Indian audiences are ready for multipart storytelling on a grand scale, and that those stories, when done well, can compete with the biggest film series in the world. The franchise's success in international markets alongside its dominance at home signals a shift in how Indian franchises are perceived globally.

For Bollywood, which has long celebrated individual blockbusters rather than sustained franchises, this is a genuinely new chapter.