Shah Rukh Khan had it in his heyday. Ranveer Singh has it now. The ability to energise a room. The only difference is the Delhi boy was slightly shy, while the Mumbai lad is unfettered. Ranveer’s liveliness showed up even at a promotional event for the “desi Chinese” food product he endorses, earning him the nickname Ranveer Ching. Most venues have a VIP entrance for celebs to enter the stage without wading through the audience. Ranveer always chooses to come bounding in through the audience.

Ranveer’s exultation is almost tangible, most evident in his work ethic. Watch the commercial that was mounted by director Atlee with a crew of 1,200, the strength you’d find on a feature film set. With Bobby Deol playing villain and Sreeleela (of the Kissik number with Allu Arjun in Pushpa 2) on board, a title track written by Gulzar, set to music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and sung by Arijit Singh, the eight-minute ad aimed at breaking into the South market feels more like a masala film. Ranveer’s high-octane, professionally executed moves are better than those of feature films like War 2 or Baaghi 4.

Just like the budgets of big films are discussed, the cost of this ad too made headlines, ranging from ₹150 crore to “a fraction of it”.

It is the season of big budgets, with the large-scale spy thriller Dhurandhar setting off a discussion on costs. Director Aditya Dhar, the man who’s said to have access to files and inside info in Delhi, directed Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019) with a controlled budget. The ₹25 crore film grossed a monstrous ₹300 crore. Six years later, Dhar’s Dhurandhar costs ₹280 crore, practically what Uri earned. But it will put him up there with the biggest.

Dhurandhar will spark many more discussions, including the gutsy spy-work of NSA Ajit Doval (portrayed by R. Madhavan). It is so brutally effective that after ages, one watched through one’s fingers the “thousand cuts” torture sequence featuring Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal of ISI. And that was just the trailer.

Dhurandhar also merits merriment over the director’s name rhyming with the title. “In fact I got to know just the other day that my house in Mumbai is also on a road named Dhurandhar,” said Dhar. Chitrakar Dhurandhar Road is named after an 19th century painter and postcard artist.

Again, the film shows that whatever Ranveer does, he gives it his all, his flamboyance, sometimes masking his sharp focus as an actor. “I’m doing another next-level intense film,” he said. “The last time I did something so intense was in Padmaavat.”

As for Madhavan, the one question every time we meet is, “Maddy, what is it that you’re suddenly doing right?” Working in a smorgasbord of assignments, Maddy’s last count from The Railway Men to Dhurandhar has been a dozen in recent years. One thing Maddy is doing right is going out of his way for colleagues. When Anil Kapoor backed out of De De Pyaar De 2 at the last minute, preferring to enter Aditya Chopra’s spyverse as the new RAW chief in War 2, Madhavan, who had teamed well with Ajay Devgn in Shaitaan, stepped into DDPD2.

As it turned out, Anil Kapoor’s role in War 2 was hardly worth a recall, while Maddy won much applause for DDPD2. As Anil’s favourite line goes, “You win some, you lose some.” He just “lost some”.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author