New Delhi: Emraan Hashmi has beaten the Bollywood curse of comeback films. Awarapan 2 has now become the highest-grossing solo film of his career. The film is also on its way to becoming one of the biggest opening-weekend grossers of 2026 in India after Dhurandhar 2 and Border 2, collecting nearly Rs 110 crore worldwide within just four days of its release.
Meanwhile, the star-studded Batwara 1947, released on the same day, is struggling at the box office. Rajkumar Santoshi’s period drama has roughly half the collection of Nitin Kakkar’s romance film, having collected only Rs 37 crore worldwide. Backed by Aamir Khan Productions, Batwara 1947 stars Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Shabana Azmi, and Ali Fazal. It also marks the reunion of the iconic actor-director duo, Deol and Santoshi, after nearly two decades.
Interestingly, veteran actor Shabana Azmi stars in both the slowest weekend opener and the one breaking its prequel’s record. Released in 2007, Awarapan collected a mere Rs 10 crore worldwide. The film was considered one of Hashmi’s biggest flops and was a remake of the Korean film A Bittersweet Life (2005).
But its sequel has turned the story around, becoming Hashmi’s biggest hit. The second instalment revolves around Shivam Pandit, who is once again forced to fight the underworld. The film also stars Disha Patani as his new love interest.
Following their recent box office comebacks. The trailer for Deol’s next film Gabru is already playing in theatres. The action-drama is being touted as a palate cleanser for Deol. The film supposedly does not follow the typical grey, action-heavy template associated with the actor. Instead, Gabru is more of a love story about a selfless man.
Whereas Hashmi’s next film, Gun Master G9, was officially announced on Monday. The film will be directed by Aditya Datt and will star Genelia Deshmukh and Aparshakti Khurana. The project adds another film to Hashmi’s old love-action-drama palette and is set to release on 27 November.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)