Kamal Ghorui
‘Dhuandhar: The Revenge’ directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh in the lead, made waves at the box office last week as it officially overtook ‘Baahubali 2: The Revenge’ to become the highest-grossing film at the North American box office. After the film’s social media handle, cheered on the spy-action film for setting a new benchmark for Indian cinema overseas, Rana Daggubati, who played a leading role in the film, has shared his thoughts. Reacting to the Bollywood film raising the bar at the box office, with its USD 24.39 million haul to date, Daggubati welcomed new box office milestone.
Rana Daggubati on ‘Dhurandhar 2’ beating ‘Baahubali 2’
In a chat with Variety India, Rana said, “It’s good. It’s a decade later, but it’s still very good. I think we’re all still touching the tip of the iceberg.”‘Dhurandhar 2’ with its impressive 2 week collection in the US, beat out the lifetime earning of ‘Baahubali 2’ which was estimated at USD 20.80 million. The film set the record over nine years ago.Looking at the larger picture, Daggubati shared, “You’ll have Baahubalis, you’ll have Dhurandhars, you’ll have all of these cinemas, but the cinema that’s personal will be able to resonate far across.”
Rana Daggubati on local cinema
Championing the cause of local cinema and stories, he added, “I think Korean cinema has done that to an extent where they took something that’s very local to their culture and told it. America did it beautifully back in their early times, where we know more about American history than Indian history, just because of the cinema that they’ve made.”The actor also pointed out the increasing global appeal of Indian cinema and stories. Opening up about a Malayalam film about nurses who are working in Bombay, he shared that while the film did reasonable business in India, it became a global phenomenon. “France’s collections alone will be four times that of India. So, our local stories are resonating in different parts of the world because there’s human understanding to them,” he said and added that it was time for Indian filmmakers to find the best cinematic language and move forward.
‘Dhurandhar 2’ chases ‘Baahubali 2’ global box office record
At the global box office, ‘Dhurandhar 2’ has already stormed past the Rs 1,500 crore mark. The film that entered its third week at the box office, is already on its way to beat the lifetime box office record of ‘Pushpa 2’ at Rs 1,742 crore and the ‘Baahubali 2’ record of Rs 1,788 crore as it sets its sights on becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of all time. It, however, will also have to beat the Aamir Khan starrer ‘Dangal’, which still holds the top spot with a total haul of Rs 2,070 crore.
