Opinion: A Dhurandhar Lesson For Rajamouli

Legendary filmmaker SS Rajamouli is easily the biggest commercial filmmaker we have today. The scale he operates on is different. The kind of world he creates demands huge budgets. And naturally, huge recoveries if his producers have to sustain for a long time. Right now, he is working with Superstar Mahesh Babu on Varanasi, a film being made with a budget that is touching ₹1000 crore. That itself tells you the game. But here is where things get interesting.

Aditya Dhar’s masterpiece, Ranveer Singh starrer Dhurandhar 2, despite all the hype, strong content, and sequel advantage, is struggling to reach the ₹2000 crore mark. It is doing big numbers, no doubt, but that ₹1700 crore recovery from Part 2 and ₹1000+ crores recovery from Part 1 isn’t a big number as the expected peak hasn’t happened. If a film like that couldn’t comfortably cross ₹2000 crore, how easy is it for Varanasi? Also, if a film like Dhurandhar, made with ₹250 crores for two parts, makes a total revenue of ₹3000 crores, how much should Varanasi make?

We have seen this before. Even massive films need the right markets. RRR worked globally because it broke into the West, especially the US market. That recall still helps Rajamouli. But relying only on traditional markets might not be enough this time. Films like Dangal made huge money from China. Some Indian films like Baahubali and RRR clicked well in Japan too. That market alone pushed it to a different level. So Rajamouli should focus more on those markets, if the Dhurandhar lesson is anything to teach him.

Even trade experts say that China and Japan might have deeper penetration than the West, as Indian content is pretty much liked there, if dubbed well. That’s where the real game is.