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Dhurandhar distributor reveals North America contributed 60% of $26 million overseas gross, says the film had ‘all the ingredients to not work’

The overseas distributor of Dhurandhar revealed that the majority of the film’s collections have come from markets such as the United States and Canada.

3 min readMumbaiDec 30, 2025 09:37 PM IST

Dhurandhar has performed very well in the UK.

Who would have thought that Hindi cinema, after another fairly lukewarm year with tentpole films failing to fire, would end 2025 with a historic hit like Dhurandhar? The film, headlined by Ranveer Singh and directed by Aditya Dhar, has not only become the highest grosser of the year but has also broken multiple records, crossing the glorious 1000 crore mark globally. Speaking about its overseas business, the film’s distributor, Pranab Kapadia, recently remarked that, on paper, Dhurandhar was a film that should not have achieved such remarkable success abroad.

In an interview with CNN News 18, Kapadia said, “It had all the ingredients before release that were not considered suited for overseas markets, the length of the film, the fact that it’s an action film. Traditionally, we’ve seen that romance works much better. Of course, there is a sizable audience outside the Indian community that watches Indian films, so you do expect it to do good numbers. But it is beyond anybody’s imagination or expectation that, as of today, 24 days into its box office run, we are at Rs 238 crores, or 26 million dollar, which is absolutely unbelievable.”

Explaining where the majority of collections have come from, territory-wise, Pranab Kapadia said, “Even before release we knew US and Canada are going to be major contributors. And almost 50 to 60% of the 26 million dollar has come from North America. We have crossed 15 million dollar as of yesterday in North America alone. And coming to other markets like Australia, we are close to 5 million Australian dollar, and already the number three best Indian film of all time there. UK we are at 2.5 million pound, and the film has already gone way past traditionally UK-friendly films like Rocky Aur Rani ki Prem Kahaani and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. A long-standing 25-year-old record of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was surpassed today by Dhurandhar.”

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However, Kapadia also revealed that the ban across Middle Eastern countries resulted in a substantial loss to the Ranveer Singh-starrer’s potential overseas revenue. “I think this is at least a ten million dollar box office that we have lost, because traditionally action films have always performed very well in the Middle East. And therefore we feel that it should have gotten a release. But, at the same time we have to respect the views and the rules and regulations of every territory and every country, and they have their reasons. We are not the first film where they have not given a release. Fighter also was not released before this, and several others. So we of course made a full attempt at ensuring that we put our best foot forward for the release. But I think ultimately, the film has found its audience, if not in the Gulf, then elsewhere.”

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