Film Preview · Bollywood · March 2026
With a four-hour runtime, five languages, and a ₹1,300 crore legacy to live up to, Aditya Dhar’s sequel is either the boldest Bollywood bet of the decade — or its greatest triumph.
When Dhurandhar released in 2025 and went on to gross over ₹1,354 crore worldwide, it didn’t just break box office records — it reset expectations for what Indian espionage cinema could be. Now, its direct sequel arrives on March 19, 2026, carrying the weight of one of Bollywood’s biggest franchises and a narrative that promises to be darker, more personal, and far more relentless.
Director Aditya Dhar — who previously upended the genre with Uri: The Surgical Strike — returns as writer, director, and co-producer. The sequel picks up exactly where the first film’s climax left off: Hamza has just orchestrated the death of gang lord Rehman Dakait. He is now the undisputed king of Lyari. And he is barely holding together.
A spy stripped down to his bones
What made the first film compelling was its refusal to glamorise the intelligence operative. Hamza — real name Jaskirat Singh Rangi — was not a sleek, martini-sipping spy. He was an exhausted man deep in enemy territory, slowly losing himself to the role he played. The sequel leans even harder into that premise.
Early reviews describe Ranveer Singh delivering a ferocious, dual-shaded performance where Hamza has fully stopped pretending he is merely playing a gangster. The action sequences, choreographed by international teams, are reportedly visceral and uncomfortable — not the stylised violence of commercial cinema, but the kind that leaves a residue.
The revenge angle connects directly to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Having witnessed the orchestration of those strikes while embedded in Karachi’s criminal networks, Hamza’s mission transforms from infiltration to vengeance. His targets: ISI handler Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal) and the shadowy architect known only as Bade Sahab — whose identity remains the film’s most closely guarded secret.
The ensemble
Alongside Ranveer Singh, the cast includes Sanjay Dutt as SP Chaudhary Aslam, R. Madhavan as IB Director Ajay Sanyal, Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal, and Sara Arjun as Yalina. Rumours continue to swirl around Yami Gautam in a cameo and Emraan Hashmi potentially playing the film’s villain — a casting choice that would add enormous intrigue to the Bade Sahab mystery.
The pan-India bet
The original released only in Hindi. The sequel goes pan-India — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada — a significant expansion that signals the franchise’s ambition to become a truly national phenomenon. Special preview screenings on March 18 ride the festive momentum of Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, and Eid al-Fitr. The sole logistical challenge: a nearly four-hour runtime limits daily shows, requiring exceptional occupancy to outpace the predecessor’s records.
Yet the franchise has earned that faith. Dhurandhar built a universe grounded in the real mechanics of terror financing, political syndicates, and geopolitical consequence — territory largely unexplored at this scale in Indian cinema. The sequel extends it into even more morally complex ground.
Verdict: Whether The Revenge shatters its predecessor’s numbers or not, it is already a landmark — a major Hindi film that treats its audience as adults, its protagonist as flawed, and its genre as worthy of genuine craft.
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