Big Stars, Bigger Starts… The Directors Who Are Driving Bollywood’s Opening-Day Record

In Bollywood’s box-office game, stars may bring the crowd in, but the director still has to turn that star power into an event. The latest opening numbers underline that point, with a mix of filmmakers from different generations and schools of filmmaking sitting behind some of the industry’s biggest starts.

Aditya Dhar – Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge
Aditya Dhar has gone straight to the top with Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge. The Ranveer Singh-led actioner has put up an opening weekend of a staggering 466 crore, leaving the rest of the current Hindi market’s biggest openers some distance behind. For Dhar, who arrived in the big-league commercial space with Uri: The Surgical Strike, this is a remarkable escalation in scale and what a joy it was for the arid box office to witness that high!

Atlee – Jawan
Before Dhurandhar 2, Atlee had shown just how far a director could push the opening of a Hindi star vehicle. Jawan, his first Hindi film, opened with Shah Rukh Khan at the centre of a full-blown mass entertainer and clocked 286.16 crore over its opening weekend. It was the kind of start that immediately established Atlee as a filmmaker who could translate South-style spectacle into a pan-India Hindi blockbuster.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga – Animal
Vanga’s Animal was a different beast altogether. The Ranbir Kapoor starrer came with an adult, polarising narrative but opened like a mainstream event film, registering 201.76 crore in its first weekend. Vanga’s ability to turn a fiercely individual filmmaking style into a major theatrical proposition has made him one of the most commercially potent directors in the current crop.

Abhishek Pathak – Drishyam : The Conclusion

Abhishek Pathak has now taken the Drishyam franchise to its biggest opening yet. Drishyam The Conclusion , led by Ajay Devgn, recorded 174.50 crore over its opening weekend, giving Pathak a major entry into the big-opener club. It also shows the commercial muscle of a thriller that remains untapped as a major box office churner. This is the first time in the history of movies that a thriller has managerd to bring in audience to the theatres in hordes. Sure, the Franchise has built a loyal audience but this time around, an original story and the filmaker behind it emerged as the real winners!

Ali Abbas Zafar – Sultan

And OGs remain so for a reason! Ali Abbas Zafar’s Sultan remains an important name in this conversation. The Salman Khan-starrer arrived as an Eid event and delivered 180.36 crore over its opening weekend way back in 2016. Zafar’s film combined Salman’s superstardom with a sports-drama format and proved that a director can create a mass-market event without simply leaning on the conventional action template.

What stands out in Bollywood’s big successes is the variety – a spy thriller, a pan-India action spectacle, a controversial character drama, a franchise thriller and a sports entertainer. Different genres, different stars, different filmmaking voices but the same endgame – making the first weekend count big. And with Dhurandhar 2 now sitting at the top with 466 crore, the benchmark has moved again. We wonder who will beat that one!