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If numbers alone were the measure of cultural value, Dhurandhar would be the unquestioned film of the year. In just 24 days, the period spy thriller has raced to INR 6.9 billion at the Indian box office, according to The Indian Express, becoming the highest-grossing Hindi film domestically.

Dhurandhar muscled past record-holder Chhaava, which was blamed for the riots in Nagpur earlier this year for its portrayal of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Chhaava’s success, and now Dhurandhar’s, could be a case study in how spectacle, nationalism and state-aligned storytelling continue to translate into massive theatrical returns. Directed by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar belongs squarely to the now-familiar genre of muscular, chest-thumping Hindi cinema that blurs the line between espionage fantasy and ideological messaging.

Its unprecedented run has seen it overtake the two Shah Rukh Khan-led blockbusters that revived the action genre in 2023 — Pathaan and Jawan — both of which were frequently criticised for leaning into hyper-nationalist tropes.

Pathaan closed at INR 5.43 billion domestically, while Jawan earned INR 6.4 billion at the Indian box office. Dhurandhar, released in a single version, has comfortably sailed past both, becoming a reliable display of how this incendiary brand of cinema continues to mobilise audiences.

The film also marks a commercial comeback of sorts for Ranveer Singh, who hadn’t had a solo theatrical release in over two years since Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

However, the more intriguing box office headline belongs to his co-star, Akshaye Khanna. Having also appeared in Chhaava, the previous highest-grossing Hindi film at the domestic box office, Khanna now has two of Hindi cinema’s biggest earners to his credit within the same calendar year. That places him in the same club as Shah Rukh Khan, who achieved the feat in 2023 with Pathaan and Jawan. Khanna entering the same league as King Khan was not on our 2025 bingo cards. Then again, what was?

In purely numerical terms, Khanna’s films have gone even further — Dhurandhar and Chhaava together have amassed INR 12.92 billion domestically, surpassing the combined total of Khan’s two blockbusters.

Dhurandhar’s record-breaking run might just be proof that propaganda films, when mounted at scale and packaged with star power, continue to be Hindi cinema’s most dependable commercial currency. And as the numbers climb higher, so does the certainty that this template of cinema is far from running out of steam.