Kamal Ghorui
Aditya Dhar’s ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ isn’t just dominating at the box office, but even conversations on the internet ever since it hit theatres on March 19. In just a week, the film smashed multiple box office records and has continued its stellar run. However, just a day before release, it faced an unexpected hurdle when its paid reviews were reportedly cancelled due to “technical issues.” This led to many peopleDhurandhar 2 Movie Review Actor Danish Pandor who plays Uzair Baloch in the film, opened up about an emotional moment from the film’s opening day. He recalled walking into a nearly empty theatre, with an occupancy of 40–50 people, amid what he described as widespread “negative publicity.”
Reflecting on that phase, Danish said in an interview with ABP live, “It’s all about the audience. I remember the film released on Friday after the screening got cancelled on Thursday. I was completely heartbroken. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I kept thinking, ‘It is such a great film, why is this happening?’ And on top of that, there was too much negative publicity around it.”He further shared, “When the film finally released on Friday, I went for the 2:30 pm show. There were barely 40–50 people in the theatre. I kept wondering, we have made such a beautiful film, and there are no viewers. From 8 pm onwards, reviews started pouring in. Suddenly people began watching it and talking about it on social media. It picked up so well that there was no looking back. The reality is, no matter how much negativity surrounds a film, when audiences decide to show their love, nobody can stop them.”Despite the shaky beginning, the film still opened to massive numbers at the box office. On day one, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ collected Rs 145 crore (including paid previews), marking the biggest opening ever for a Bollywood release. It maintained the momentum with two back-to-back Rs 100 crore days and wrapped up its first week with Rs 643 crore at the domestic box office. Meanwhile, talking about the cancelled shows, Gaiety-Galaxy owner Manoj Desai had lashed out at ‘Dhurandhar 2’ makers, Jio Studios for giving KDM late. For those not in the know, KDM stands for Key Delivery Message. It is a small, encrypted XML file containing the security key needed to unlock and play an encrypted Digital Cinema Package (DCP). KDMs restrict movies to specific, authorized theater servers and, crucially, to a specific time window, acting as a Digital Rights Management (DRM) tool against piracy. So, theatres are not authorised to play any film till they get the KDM from the makers.Desai told ETimes, “They were running late and they are not answerable to anyone. They have earned so much money from ‘Dhurandhar’ and yet they did not care about so many cancelled shows. 2 shows were cancelled at Gaeity and two shows at Galaxy and two shows at Maratha Mandir. So, total 6 shows were cancelled at my theatres. Mere akele theatre mein nahi. Pure India mein 500 theatres mein KDM nahi gaya aur show cancel hua.”
