Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge may be rewriting records in the Hindi belt, but its performance in the South is telling a completely different story. Despite its massive scale and sequel hype, the film has struggled to create a strong impact in Telugu, Tamil, and other Southern markets.
The reason is quite clear, regional loyalty. Audiences in the South strongly support their own stars and filmmakers. Unlike the Hindi market, where viewers are more open to content from different industries, Southern audiences already get a steady stream of high quality, mass driven films in their own languages. That naturally reduces the need to turn toward Bollywood films.
There is also a growing disconnect between Bollywood and grassroots audiences. Many Hindi films today are perceived as being designed more for urban multiplex viewers, NRIs, woke audience, or elite tastes. Bollywood makers have forgotten how to make films for the masses in B and C centers. In contrast, South cinema continues to deliver raw emotion, strong heroism, and larger than life storytelling that connects directly with the masses.
That is exactly why films like Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and Pushpa 2: The Rule created massive impact in the North. They brought scale, emotion, and rooted storytelling, elements that many feel Bollywood has been missing in recent years.
Coming to the numbers, Dhurandhar 2 is expected to underperform in the South with lifetime collections around 42-45 crores. It may struggle to cross Animal’s collections of around Rs.45 crores in South versions and is nowhere close to Jawan, which did around Rs.65 crores range in South Tamil and Telugu versions.
The takeaway is blunt. Bollywood films still haven’t been able to create the kind of hysteria in the South that South films have generated multiple times in the North.
For that to change, a big-budget Hindi film needs a strong South star at the center. That formula has been attempted before with Adipurush and War 2, but it hasn’t delivered the expected impact so far.
However, the idea itself is not wrong, it just needs the right execution. If a well-made Bollywood film combines massive scale with a top-tier Telugu star and strong storytelling, it still has the potential to break barriers and pull huge numbers in the South, similar to how South films dominate the North box office.
