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At face value, the first half of 2026 was like any other six months: it had great, good, mediocre, bad and execrable films of all hues, some released on OTT, some dubbed regional films (including this time—Surprise! Surprise!—a Gujarati blockbuster dubbed in Hindi—Laalo—and a Marathi movie). But in some ways, it was also unusual or unique.
Let us quickly scan this January to June phase.
The Business Brouhaha
Some elements in the trade state decisively that Dhurandhar The Revenge is the only profitable film this year. And what a profit! The entire Dhurandhar franchise was reportedly budgeted at Rs. 40 billion, but the second installment alone concluded its historic theatrical run, in early June, amassing a massive worldwide gross of approximately Rs. 181.31 billion and an India net of Rs.114. 90 bn.
Dhurandhar…, however, remains an exceptional case, but otherwise, the scenario was mixed. Both nationally and in some cases internationally, some films did very well in the theatres but did not recover their costs (production and promotion) from there.
Here again, there was a mixed scenario. One: different social media sites and trade “authorities” quoted variable cost and box-office figures. Two: collections were, as always, hyped up, even more than the ‘expecting’ 5 to 15 percent. Three, social media, often paid or with lobbies, criticized many a good and successful film (not the same, necessarily!) and extolled the bad and flop ones (ditto). Multiplex owners played God and nixed the potentials of many such films with poor show timings or number of screens. Finally, not always as per region (though differences tended to be there), different trade analysts, distributors and exhibitors gave vastly variable reports of many a film.
Last and not the least, many a film had co-producers who were also distributors or exhibitors. That made the profit-loss statements of movies complex as films could recover costs before release, or stars often did not take fees upfront but as a percentage of the profits, if at all the films made money.
Definite hits in terms of audience patronage and theatrical runs and collections were thus Welcome to the Jungle,Cocktail 2, Bhooth Bangla and Border 2. Films given the average tag (including all the last four films as per some sources!) were The Kerala Story 2 (the first film was a blockbuster) and Mardaani 3.
Doubtfully declared successes or failures by diverse sources were movies like Hai Jawani To Ishq Hona Hai, Main Vaapas Aaunga (because it began very low, had great reviews and will chart up around Rs. 65 crore lifetime with decent overseas business too), Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past (which got decent openings especially at small-town territories before fizzling out, though its budget is very low) and Krishnavataram Part 1: Hridayam, where thefilmmakers expressed happiness at the response to another low-budget enterprise.
The biggest disaster of the year remains the Hindi version of Raja Shivaji, whose business in Marathi was claimed to be exceptional, The Hindi film, some 8 minutes shorter, chalked up less than Rs. 20 crore! The film’s budget was said to be Rs. 75 crore and even the Marathi ROI was on the losing side as the filmmakers claimed a worldwide Marathi collection of just over Rs. 100 crore. The bi-lingual Dacait: A Love Story was a major disaster too.
Good films faring badly
In a sign of the times where audiences become whimsical about what they wish to watch in the movie halls by paying exorbitant rates for admission and food and beverage, the superb Ek Din and Vadh 2, the lovable Ikkis, the enjoyable Tu Yaa Main, Daadi Ki Shaadi and Pati Patni Aur Woh Do all underperformed, while the average O’Romeo was touted to have done better than it deserved.
OTT Not to the rescue!
The OTT releases were not promising: Accused was decent, but only Jab Khuli Kitaab was brilliant.
The dregs
The hyped Subedar was easily the worst OTT product of the year. In theatres, none could perhaps beat excruciatingly painful movies like Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain: Fun on the Run, Bandar, Assi, Ginny Weds Sunny 2, Raja Shivaji, Dacait—A Love Story, Mayasabha—The Wall of Illusion and IIT—Indian Institute of Zombies.
Performances
Dimple Kapadia, Pankaj Kapoor and Aparshakti Khurana in Jab Khuli Kitaab, Rani Mukerji and Prajesh Kashyap in Mardaani 3, Kriti Sanon, Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna in Cocktail 2, Rakul Preet Singh, Wamiqa Gabbi and Ayesha Raza Mishra in Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, Sanjay Mishra, Neena Gupta and Aksshay Dogra in Vadh 2, Jacqueline Fernandez, Kiran Kumar and Farida Jalal in Welcome to the Jungle, Junaid Khan and Sai Pallavi in Ek Din, and Nivaashiyni Krishnan and Siddharth Gupta in Krishnavataram Part 1:Hridayam led for the acting honors.
The entire cast of Dhurandhar The Revenge was impeccable, while Dharmendra was completely lovable in his swan song, Ikkis.
Music
The finest music scores came from Prasad S. in Krishnavataram Part 1:Hridayam, Pritam in Cocktail 2 and Ram Sampath in Ek Din. Correction: These were the only standout scores of 2026 so far.
Captain of the Ship
My votes for the best captains of the ships that came on big screen and small this year go to Aditya Dhar for Dhurandhar The Revenge, Homi Adajania for Cocktail 2, Sunil Pandey for Ek Din, Saurabh Shukla for Jab Khuli Kitaab and Jaspal Singh Sandhu for Vadh 2. Naturally, for me, these are the five best films of the year so far.
‘Double’ role
Aamir Khan produced one of the best products of the year—Ek Din—and one of the most horrific—Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos.
Absent, sir! Present, ma’am!
Aamir as actor, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone were all absent. But the Deol clan was there in full force, with Sunny Deol (Border 2) and Bobby Deol (Bandar) also coming in along with father, Dharmendra.
