Dharma and YRF witnessed the biggest highs and lows of Bollywood in 2025; do they know what works or is it all a fluke?

Meanwhile, in the domestic landscape, 2025 was a year dominated by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films which released six films (a seventh one is still on the books). And no matter what anyone might tell you about the box office figures, laypeople like you and me, who have no stake in a film, can only discuss made-up figures of someone else’s bank account for only that long, but we do realise that these figures often dictate what kind of films will be presented to us in the coming years. The biggies – Dharma Productions and Yash Raj Films (YRF) – which now find themselves in the same league as Maddock, had an unusual year as they saw the best and the worst of times, and made some of the strangest decisions, all in a span of a few months.

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Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor in Sunny Sanskari ki Tulsi Kumari.

‘Bollywood royalty’ YRF and Dharma throwing everything at the wall

YRF and Dharma are often treated as Bollywood royalty, and not just because they are two of the oldest existing studios in the business, it’s also because they have positioned themselves as the market leaders, the trendsetters and the dreamweavers for anyone who even glances towards Bollywood. When an audience member walks in to watch a YRF/Dharma film, they have certain expectations and more often than not, when that expectation is not met, they tend to curse the privileged nepo babies running these places where other nepo babies are presented multiple opportunities to make something of themselves. And this year, it was more apparent than ever that the bosses at these places were just throwing anything on the wall and just watching what eventually sticks.

Dharma, which surely must be celebrating right now because of Homebound’s shortlist, had a rather adventurous year with Kesari Chapter 2, Sarzameen, Nadaaniyan, Dhadak 2, Aap Jaisa Koi, Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. They are still looking forward to the release of Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri. And of course, their crown jewel of the year – Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound.

YRF, on the other hand, had just two releases. One was loved, and the other one was hated to a point where it actually reminded people of the scarring experience of Thugs of Hindostan. Saiyaara was applauded for its heartwarming love story that might not be a lesson in filmmaking, but it had a certain X factor that charms the audience. War 2, which released just a month later, effectively killed, or at least mortally wounded, the biggest franchise of Bollywood.

Homebound stars Vishal Jethwa and Ishaan Khattar.

Dharma being stingy with Homebound? Not possible with the Oscar run!

Enough has been said about Homebound not getting enough support theatrically upon its release in India, and as the netizens often do, the blame is on Karan Johar, that he doesn’t want to spend money on getting the audience to watch this movie. Technically, this might become the most expensive film for his production house, considering that this is now on the Oscar shortlist, and if we have learnt anything from previous Oscar campaigns, we know that this is not something that’s even remotely comparable to getting your stars to dance on reality shows, malls or even getting more screens for a film. It is evident that the goal of Homebound was crystal clear from the beginning: to get as many (interested) people around the world to watch it, so you can’t really blame Dharma when they realise that Homebound might not find enough takers here, as even Dhadak 2 couldn’t get people in the door.

The Neeraj Ghaywan film was clearly the best Hindi film of the year, with a strong voice that criticised the establishment almost in a way that even they couldn’t figure it out. Or perhaps, the folks at censor board themselves have gotten so used to the systemic problems of the country that they can’t classify these as objectionable anymore, as this has become their new normal.

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The unfortunate fate of Dhadak 2

Dharma also produced Dhadak 2, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Tripti Dimri, directed by Shazia Iqbal. The announcement of the film left people quite surprised because one doesn’t imagine Shazia to fit into Dharma’s mould, and that’s where probably this film shone – they didn’t fit her into their required setting but instead, created a new template for her film. A rare film that dealt with caste, Dhadak 2 was one of the best films of the year, which immediately made one wonder about Dharma’s foresight in backing different kinds of stories. Naysayers might say that it didn’t get enough push, but it’s not like Saiyaara did either, but it turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the year.

Dhadak 2 was directed by Shazia Iqbal.

Kesari 2, Dharma’s attempt at propaganda

Innocent members of the audience might tell you that Kesari Chapter 2 introduced them to the “untold story of Jallianwala Bagh”, but little do they know that the so-called history they watched for 132 minutes did not even happen. In a very clear case of tampering with the truth, they selectively chose a historical event, but focused on the fictional by-product of the same event. How they minimised the efforts of Sankaran Nair was insulting, but what was even worse was their continuing to never acknowledge that they were just making things up while pretending that this was all based on history.

Watching Nadaaniyan for the ‘wrong reasons’?

Enough has been said about Nadaaniyan with Ibrahim Ali Khan becoming possibly the most trolled actor since Heeramandi’s Sharmin Segal. It was almost as if haters were uniting just to make new jokes on the film, which led Karan Johar to say that the film was being watched for the “wrong reasons.” As if that wasn’t enough, Karan had another film with Ibrahim, Sarzameen, which disappeared as soon as it released. The Nadaaniyan bashing might have gotten mean at one point, but it did convey one thing very clearly – that no one was obligated to praise a bunch of people who already had a lot going for them in life.

Khushi Kapoor and Ibrahim Ali Khan in Nadaaniyan.

Enough with the Sunny Sanskaris

Dharma also tried to rehash its old formulaic filmmaking with Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. Watching it could only make one think about how something that comes easily to Karan, telling stories about complicated families and relationships, is miles away from Shashank Khaitan. There is no better way of saying that this film, with an excessively long name, was just tragic to watch as it was a reminder of Varun Dhawan’s lost potential, Janhvi Kapoor’s abilities being shortchanged (she actually has a film that means something), Rohit Saraf’s hope for his future with a confused Dharma, and Sanya Malhotra wondering in real time if she needed to be here after Mrs.

YRF’s lucky break disguised as marketing

Yash Raj Films’ Saiyaara released without much hype. So much so that some sections of the audience learnt about it only when they saw kids losing their minds in cinema halls on Instagram Reels. The film wasn’t promoted in a traditional fashion where the actors are made to play mindless games with a bunch of content creators as they talk about everything under the sun, except their film, because no one has seen it yet, not even the ones interviewing them. Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda were shielded from the world, and in hindsight, everyone believed that this was the secret sauce that worked for the film. We still don’t know if this was a calculated move or just something they decided to do to save some money as they had their biggest investment of the year up for release just a month later.

Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday in Saiyaara.

Saiyaara and War 2 released just a month apart, and it honestly seemed like YRF did not have much faith in a Mohit Suri musical and were laying all their eggs in Ayan Mukerji’s basket, who famously spent over Rs 400 crore on Brahmastra, that Karan Johar hoped to recoup after the trilogy was made (which never happened, and seems unlikely now). Saiyaara brought back the idea of romantic dramas, which were all the rage until a couple of decades ago, and had somehow gotten lost in the sea of macho action heroes, where the men are a little too much in love with their own biceps, and have a strange lust for violence. It’s not like these violent sagas are out of vogue now, but at least the makers, we hope, know that their creation of formulas and algorithms is nothing but flukes.

War 2 was directed by Ayan Mukerji.

The terrible War 2

And these violent men and their violent sagas were seen in War 2, which was supposed to be the glorious YRF film of the year. The film was so subpar that it made you wonder if the heads at this organisation imagine their audience to be fools. There was no way that this film was seen by multiple eyes, and then okayed for a release, just as it was. The audacity to imagine that the audience would buy into the farce of impossible action when it is clearly obvious that the stars here have not even stepped out of air-conditioned studios needs to be studied. What also needs to be studied is why studios believe it’s completely fine to throw trash at the audience and then pretend not to know why people would rather watch a film at home than visit a theatre.

2025 wasn’t a year that would be celebrated in the history of Bollywood, but if Homebound makes it all the way, it would definitely be an unforgettable year.