Apr 03, 2026 6:35pm IST
Rana Daggubati On ‘Dhurandhar 2’ Overtaking ‘Baahubali 2’ Record in North America: “We’re Just Touching the Tip of the Iceberg” (EXCLUSIVE)
Ranveer Singh and Aditya Dhar's “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” has emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film in North America, marking a significant milestone for Indian cinema on the global stage. The spy action spectacle has collected $22 million within two weeks, dethroning the nine-year-old box-office record of S.S. Rajamouli's “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” ($20.80 million).
Reacting to this achievement, Rana Daggubati, who played the iconic role of Bhallaladeva in the franchise, calls it a positive sign for the growth of Indian cinema internationally. “It's good. It's a decade later, but it's still very good. I think we’re all still touching the tip of the iceberg,” Daggubati said while commenting on “Dhurandhar 2” surpassing “Baahubali” at the North American box office.
The actor-producer says Indian stories have increasingly started resonating across the globe due to the emotional depth they offer to audiences. “There’s been all kinds of cinema that's going to see a little beauty. I'll talk about this Malayalam film about nurses who are working in Bombay. Now it's a story that did reasonably well in India but phenomenally globally. Like France's collections alone will be four times that of India. So, our local stories are resonating in different parts of the world because there's human understanding to them,” he says.
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Daggubati stresses that stories that touch one on a personal level often transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, irrespective of their scale. “You'll have Baahubalis, you'll have Dhurandhars, you'll have all of these cinemas, but the cinema that's personal will be able to resonate far across. I think Korean cinema has done that to an extent where they took something that's very local to their culture and told it. America did it beautifully back in their early times, where we know more about American history than Indian history, just because of the cinema that they've made,” he said, adding that "it's time our filmmakers find the best cinematic language for it and go forward."
Yesterday I watched #Dhurandhar2TheRevenge and needless to say I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed the film! Happy to see it breaking all the records and setting new box office benchmarks in India and worldwide! Congratulations to the entire team! 👏🏼👏🏼 https://t.co/ATl3o3bNTu
— Shobu Yarlagadda (@Shobu_) March 28, 2026
Recently seen in “Parasakthi”, Daggubati is currently promoting “Neelira,” a Tamil film inspired by true events from the Sri Lankan civil war. The actor has co-produced this film along with Karthik Subbaraj. The film was released in cinemas today.
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