Premieres for dubbed versions of Dhurandhar The Revenge cancelled hours before release; may cost film ₹2 crore

Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar: The Revenge was supposed to have paid premieres in Hindi and South Indian languages on March 18 evening.

Aditya Dhar’s much-awaited sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, is all set to hit screens in a few hours. Even as it was announced that the Ranveer Singh-starrer will get a release not just in Hindi, as in the first film, but also in South Indian languages, news comes in that premieres are being cancelled in the Southern states due to a content delay.

Dhurandhar 2 stars Ranveer Singh as Hamza, an Indian spy in Pakistan.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge dubbed premieres cancelled

On Wednesday, there were murmurs of theatres in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala not receiving the final content year despite shows being scheduled for the evening. In the afternoon, numerous theatre owners and distributors confirmed on social media that Tamil paid premieres for Dhurandhar 2 have been cancelled.

Vishnu Kamal of Kamal Cinemas explained the reason for the cancellation, writing, “Tamil version of Dhurandhar 2 has not been delivered to the theatres by the producers today. All tickets booked for the Tamil version will be screened in Hindi at the same time and screen. Patrons who do not wish to watch the Hindi version may opt for a refund at our box office.”

Broadway Cinemas and KSPS Cinemas also announced they would offer refunds to those who bought tickets to the Tamil premiere of Dhurandhar 2. Rakki Cinemas announced that Tamil premieres at their theatre have been called, with the first one scheduled for 5 PM. They have offered the Hindi version as an alternative. AGS Cinemas also made a similar announcement.

At the time of writing, the Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam premieres of Dhurandhar 2 are also cancelled, with BookMyShow and other ticketing platforms removing shows previously listed for March 18 evening. The shows for the Hindi premieres have also been delayed by 40 minutes amid talk of a delay in subtitling.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge premiere box office

According to the trade website Sacnilk, Dhurandhar 2 sold over 9 lakh tickets in India for premieres across various languages and grossed ₹42.71 crore. Out of this, over ₹8 lakh each came from Kannada and Malayalam, over ₹1 crore from Telugu, and over ₹80 lakh from Tamil. These cancellations could result in a loss of over ₹2.25 crore for the team from the film's premiere openings.

Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar 2 will see Ranveer Singh, Sara Arjun, Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi and others reprise their roles. The film has been rated A by the CBFC for its violent content.