Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Mar 9: The sequel to Dhurandhar is already creating a major buzz at the box office. With just days left for its release, Dhurandhar: The Revenge has set a new record for premiere advance bookings in Bollywood.

Advance bookings for the film opened on March 7 shortly after the trailer release. Within 24 hours, the film had sold around 87,000 tickets on BookMyShow alone. By the morning of March 9, ticket sales had crossed 1.5 lakh on the platform and more than 2 lac overall across India.

According to Sacnilk, the film’s preview shows have already sold around 2.06 lakh tickets nationwide, generating about Rs 12.29 crore. While most of the collection has come from the Hindi version, the Tamil dubbed version has also performed well, earning nearly Rs 10 lakh from preview bookings.

With this, Dhurandhar: The Revenge has surpassed the previous premiere record held by Stree 2, which had collected about Rs 10 crore from preview shows. With the premiere still several days away, the collection is expected to grow further.

The Rs 12.29 crore already earned through advance bookings for premiere shows has surpassed the opening-day collections of several recent Bollywood releases. For instance, O Romeo starring Shahid Kapoor opened at just over Rs 9 crore in India. Similarly, Baaghi 4 featuring Tiger Shroff had opened at around Rs 12 crore.

Both Dhurandhar and its sequel were originally shot as a single film before the makers decided to split the project into two parts shortly before the release of the first instalment.

The sequel brings back Ranveer Singh as Hamza, also known as Jaskirat, an Indian spy operating in Karachi. The film explores his backstory and his quest for revenge against the gangs of Lyari linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The film also stars Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Danish Pandor, Rakesh Bedi and Sara Arjun in key roles. Directed by Aditya Dhar, the film is scheduled to release in theatres on March 19.