JioHotstar's Big Blunder With ₹3000 Cr Dhurandhar Franchise: How Streamer Lost To Netflix Despite Bagging OTT Rights

Dhurandhar 2 became a hot grab for OTT platforms after the exceptional performance of the Aditya Dhar franchise at the box office. Together, Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar 2 have amassed a total of nearly ₹3000 crore at the Indian box office alone. Upon the release of the first film in December 2025, Netflix bagged the rights to the film's OTT streaming.

As per reports, the streaming giant paid a hefty ₹85 crore to bag the right of the first part of Ranveer Singh's starrer. The movie began streaming on January 30 and registered streaming records shortly after. This made the movie's sequel even more lucrative for streaming platforms. As a result, JioHotstar won the bidding war by paying almost double the first part's cost to acquire the streaming rights. Reports suggest that the platform shelled out a never-before-heard-of ₹150 crore to stream Dhurandhar: The Revenge on its platform. Despite the big payoff, it looks like Netflix has had the last laugh in the streaming battle.

How JioHotstar won the Dhurandhar 2 streaming battle, but lost the war to Netflix

Delayed India premiere: Even though JioHotstar won the streaming rights of Dhurandhar 2, it seems to have lost to Netflix. The streaming platform has announced that the movie will make its OTT debut on June 4, 13 weeks after its theatrical premiere on March 19. However, much to everyone's surprise, the movie premiered on Netflix overseas on May 18. The delayed premiere in India left fans of the movie fuming with JioHostar receiving flak online.

VPN access, uncensored version leaked: Another masterstroke by Netflix was releasing the ‘raw and uncut’ version of Dhurandhar 2 on the platform in early premiere. Consequentally, scenes that did not make it to theatres due to censor cuts made their way on social media upon OTT release. Additionally, several fans of the movie who waited in anticipation accessed the overseas version of Dhurandhar 2 from Netflix, using a VPN. This will lead to decreased viewership for the movie on its premiere on JioHotstar.

Dilemma over cut or uncut: While the runtime of Dhurandhar 2 reflects the same on Netflix and JioHotstar, it remains unclear if the uncut censor version of the film will stream in India. Overseas, Netflix has premiered the uncensored version, which features some scenes chopped by the censor board in India. The same scenes have already leaked on social media by users who streamed the movie on Netflix.

Also Read; Movies Releasing On OTT This Weekend: Kartavya, Dhurandhar 2, More 

The steaming confusion: 2 OTT platforms streaming the same movie was earlier unheard of. This created confusion among fans when screenshots of the movie streaming on Netflix flooded social media. Since the platform also has the first movie, netizens turned to it in search of the sequel as well.

Hence, despite shelling big bucks to acquire the streaming rights of Dhurandhar 2, JioHotstar has seemingly lost face to Netflix.  

Also Read: JioHotstar Confirms Dhurandhar 2 OTT Release After Film's Overseas Debut