Friends, in Bollywood and other regional film industries, the star power is slowly dwindling, and it is content and the director who are going to hold the reins of the film. Recently, Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar 2 prove a brutal point that without the right director, even a superstar can look ordinary.
Bollywood still worships stars in public, but the box office is beginning to vote for directors.
This is the most dangerous conclusion one can draw from the historic run of Dhurandhar 1 & 2. Yes, Ranveer Singh is the face on the poster. Yes, the star matters, but when one looks at the numbers coldly, the more uncomfortable truth stares back: Stars may still open films, but directors are increasingly the ones turning those openings into empires.
Look at Ranveer Singh’s own scorecard before the Aditya Dhar phenomenon fully exploded: Cirkus ended at just Rs 35.65 Cr and was a disaster. Jayeshbhai Jordaar stopped at Rs 15.69 Cr. Even Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, despite strong perception and heavy visibility, finished at Rs 153.6 Cr. Then came Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar, which surged to Rs 896 Cr on the same chart. The star did not wake up with a new face, a new voice and a new surname. The filmmaker built a world, a tone, a rhythm and an event that made the star ten feet taller.
That is why this is such a troll-worthy debate. Fan clubs want to say Ranveer alone did this. But if star power alone were enough, then Cirkus and Jayeshbhai Jordaar would not have been disasters at the box office. The harsher reading is that Aditya Dhar did not merely direct Ranveer Singh; he re-authored his box-office image.
The same pattern shows up elsewhere. Ranbir Kapoor had Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar at Rs 14o Cr, and Brahmastra at Rs 257.44 Cr. Then Sandeep Reddy Vanga came in with Animal and the number jumped to Rs 556 Cr. That is not a routine increment. That is a directorial leap. Vanga did not just cast Ranbir; he weaponised him. He gave him menace, conversation value, cultural provocation and a trailer –to-ticket pipeline that a regular star vehicle simply does not create.
Even Shah Rukh Khan, the biggest proof that the superstar era is alive, also proves the opposite argument. On the box-office chart, Jawan stood at Rs 643 Cr and Pathaan at Rs 543 Cr, while Dunki was at Rs 212 Cr. Shah Rukh is Shah Rukh in all three. What changes is the directorial architect around him. Atlee turned him into a mass-event machine in Jawan. Siddharth Anand packaged him as a s full-scale weapon in Pathaan. Raju Hirani delivered a softer, more emotional film in Dunki and the box office ceiling was dramatically lower. Same superstar. Different directorial design. Different blast radius.
This is where Bollywood’s old star-first mythology starts looking incomplete. Stars still matter. They remain the marketing hook, the fandom magnet, the face that converts curiosity into day-one frenzy. But the director is increasingly the one deciding whether that frenzy ends as a strong weekend, a healthy run, or an all-time blockbuster. In short, stars bring heat, directors decide whether it becomes fire or just smoke. The box office data is starting to say that very loudly.
In fact Rs 500 Cr club made the shift even clearer. It noted that Aditya Dhar is the only director with two films in the Rs 500Cr club, and one with the highest grosser Rs 896 Cr (Dhurandhar 2). The same piece also pointed to Atlee’s Jawan at Rs 643 Cr, Sukumar’s Pushpa 2 at Rs 830 Cr, Laxman Utekar’s Chhava at Rs 600 Cr and Amar Kaushik’s Stree 2 at Rs 627 Cr. Read that again slowly; the industry keeps selling star supremacy, but the Rs 500 Cr map is beginning to look like a director’s leader board.
That is exactly why Dhurandhar 2 is such a dangerous film for Bollywood’s power politics. It tells stars something that they do not enjoy hearing: your fandom may be yours, but your biggest box-office avatar may belong to the director. It also tells directors something even more explosive: if you can engineer scale, image, rhythm and urgency properly, you no longer need to stand in the star’s shadow. You can become the reason the star looks invincible in the first place.
This does mean the superstar era is dead. Far from it. Without Ranveer Singh, Dhurandhar 2 is not Dhurandhar 2. Without Shah Rukh, Jawan is not Jawan. Without Ranbir Kapoor, Animal is not Animal. But the balance of power is changing. The modern blockbuster is no longer just a star vehicle; it is a director-engineered assault. And when the director gets it right, even a superstar looks bigger than he actually was in a film earlier.
On the whole, Dhurandhar 2 has not ended the superstar era. It has done something more provocative. It has exposed that in 2026, the star may still sell the dream, but the director is increasingly the one manufacturing the phenomenon. That is a thrilling thought for filmmakers, and a slightly insulting one for fan clubs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
3rd July 2026