Jammu, Aug. 13 -- Indian cinema entered 2026 with a paradox. The theatrical business is producing extraordinary blockbusters at one end and equally spectacular failures at the other, while a large middle class of well-made, meaningful films struggles to find an audience. The lesson from 2025 and the first half of 2026 is not simply that "masala" is back. It is that audiences are increasingly willing to pay for an event-provided the film delivers scale, emotion, novelty or an irresistible story.
The numbers tell the story. In 2026, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, starring Ranveer Singh, has become the phenomenon nobody anticipated. Trade estimates put its worldwide gross at roughly Rs.1,850-1,852 crore, dwarfing virtually everything else released ...