With just a week to go for Dhurandhar: The Revenge to hit theatres, the Ranveer Singh-starrer spy thriller has sold over 1.5 lakh tickets for paid preview shows, a senior executive of PVR INOX Limited said on Tuesday.
Dhurandhar 2 is scheduled to release in theatres on March 19, coinciding with the festivals of Gudi Padwa, Ugadi and Eid. Paid previews of the Aditya Dhar directorial will be held on March 18.
Gautam Dutta, CEO – Growth and Revenue at PVR INOX Limited, told PTI the preview shows are expected to run at “full capacity”.
“Dhurandhar: The Revenge is the kind of film that truly comes alive on the big screen, where the scale, sound, and emotion of the story can be experienced at their best. The buzz around the paid previews has been extremely strong, with advance bookings at PVR INOX already crossing 150,000 tickets and several preview shows expected to run at full capacity,” Dutta said.
Paid previews are limited screenings held before a film’s official release, where audiences purchase tickets like regular shows and the collections are counted towards the film’s box office earnings.
Ticket prices for the early shows start at around Rs 300 and go up to as much as Rs 2,200 in certain parts of the country, depending on the location and format of the screening.
The first part of the franchise was released on December 5 and performed strongly at the box office, grossing over Rs 1,300 crore worldwide, including Rs 1,000 crore from the Indian market.
Unlike the earlier instalment, which released only in Hindi, the sequel will also be available in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
Dutta said the response beyond the Hindi-speaking markets has also been encouraging.
“With the film available in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, audiences across southern regions are also showing strong interest. It’s exciting to see this kind of nationwide enthusiasm, and we look forward to welcoming audiences across the country for what promises to be a memorable cinematic experience,” he said.
Set in Lyari town of Karachi, an area known for its history of gang wars and violent turf battles, the original film revolved around covert intelligence operations against the backdrop of geopolitical and terror incidents such as the Kandahar plane hijack, the 2001 Parliament attack and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The sequel will chart the rise of Ranveer Singh’s character Hamza Ali Mazari in the Karachi underworld, while also exploring his origins as Jaskirat Singh Rangi and tracing the journey of the young man who eventually becomes a covert operative.
Actors R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun and Rakesh Bedi also return for the second part.
In a statement, Ashish Saksena, COO - Cinemas at BookMyShow, said the anticipation for the sequel is clearly reflected in the paid preview numbers.
“The booking momentum has also been widely spread across markets. While Hyderabad and Mumbai are leading the trend, cities such as Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Chennai have played a significant role, with encouraging traction visible across a diverse range of markets nationwide.
“The early turnout for paid preview screenings highlights the continued audience affinity for the franchise,” Saksena said.
