‘Most impractical film’: Imtiaz Ali says studios initially rejected Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar

Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller franchise Dhurandhar, starring Ranveer Singh, has emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian film franchises in recent years. However, filmmaker Imtiaz Ali recently claimed that Dhurandhar initially received little support from within the film industry.

At HTLS 2026, Imtiaz said, “People are saying that attention span is missing in the audience, but the films which are doing well are three hours long. ‘Nothing long is working.’ People are citing Dhurandhar as an example of what is successful, but look at the length of that film.” While the first part of Dhurandhar, released last December, is 3 hours and 34 minutes long, the sequel Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, which released earlier this year, is even longer, at 3 hours and 49 minutes.

“Forgetting the fact that when Dhurandhar was actually conceived, and it was doing its run around those studios, people thought that this was the most impractical, a film with the least likelihood of success,” recalled the filmmaker.

He added, “But it broke all the rules, and after that everybody wants to make that. All of us are thinking about what will work. The language might change, but I feel it’s a phase of introspection that the film industry is going through.”

Imtiaz Ali’s own directorial Main Vaapas Aaunga, dealing with the historic relations between India and Pakistan, was a far cry from Dhurandhar in terms of its tonality and genre. The period romance revolved around a 95-year-old man’s (Naseeruddin Shah) last wish to return to his birthland in Pakistan to complete one unfinished job that had been eating him from within for over 75 years since he migrated to India during Partition.

Dhurandhar’s unprecedented success

Produced by Jyoti Desphande-led Jio Studios, the Dhurandhar duology revolved around an Indian spy (Ranveer Singh) infiltrating the terror network in Pakistan to eventually avenge the acts of terrorism conducted on Indian soil. The franchise also starred Arjun Rampal, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun, R Madhavan, and Rakesh Bedi among others.

The first part of Dhurandhar amassed over Rs 1350 crore at the worldwide box office, including over Rs 895 crore domestically. The sequel even outperformed the first part, amassing over Rs 1852 crore globally and over Rs 1108 crore in India. At over Rs 3200 crore, it’s the highest grossing Indian franchise ever.

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Made on a combined budget of Rs 255 crore, the two Dhurandhar films grossed more than 10 times that amount at the worldwide box office. Along with that, the pre-release business of both parts — including satellite rights, digital rights, and music rights (adding up to almost Rs 400 crore)  — served only as a bonus on the massive box office.