Dhurandhar Box Office Day One Sees A 30% Block Bookings Push—Where’s The Fair Value We Were Talking About?

Dhurandhar Day One Box Office :

Dhurandhar is making headlines for many reasons — and not all for the right ones. Initially projected for a massive ₹40 crore opening after its trailer created strong anticipation, the buzz unexpectedly dipped closer to release. What once looked like a sure-shot blockbuster suddenly found itself struggling to even chase the ₹15 crore mark. For a film mounted on such a huge budget, that number was viewed as underwhelming, sparking negativity — especially from various South industry fan pages.

Quick to spot this unfair narrative, director Aditya Dhar’s wife, Yami Gautam, took a bold stand and called out the alleged malpractices aimed at pulling the film down. A brave act indeed.

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Then came the advance booking scenario. Dhurandhar was trailing behind titles like Chhaava, War 2, and Sikandar, with ticket sales not meeting early expectations. Typically, PIC (PVR Inox Cinepolis) data is considered final up to 11:30 PM on the eve of release since most audiences are done with their bookings by then.

But Dhurandhar turned out to be a different game altogether. As reported by Pinkvilla, the film witnessed a dramatic swing in numbers post-midnight — jumping from around 1 lakh tickets to nearly 1.7 lakh tickets. Surprising? Yes. Impossible? Not entirely — people do juggle office and household responsibilities and may have booked late, even if it was post-bed time. Still, fair value conversations we were having in the morning suddenly took a back seat.

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Now, let’s talk about opening day. A ₹16–17 crore opening for such a big-scale film doesn’t quite scream success. However, with some narrative strategy and a little push from bulk ticketing, the film managed to enter the Top 5 Bollywood openers of 2025. How? Trade site BoxOfficeIndia mentioned that around 30% of the reported 23–24 crore nett on day one came from block bookings (just like Sky Force and Bhool Chuk Maaf). 

As highlighted by both BoxOfficeIndia and Pinkvilla, these are just “NUMBERS,” not genuine audience “COLLECTIONS.” And that’s exactly why the industry must address fairness and malpractice seriously. Will these practices help the film gain profits? Probably not. Will they invite disrespect? Absolutely — and loudly. People with no box office knowledge may find the headlines on box office numbers impressive and that's the actual target, but others are not fool. Honestly, I believe if your film has merits and star cast featuring Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal and R. Madhavan, you don't need any fake push.

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