Dhurandhar makers asked to mute ‘Baloch’ by I&B Ministry; 50% screens given to Ikkis with Jio Studios intervention

Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar gives up 50% single screens for Agastya Nanda's Ikkis.

As the new year kicks off today, Aditya Dhar’s blockbuster period spy thriller Dhurandhar faces two setbacks. The first is in the form of an I&B Ministry’s order to make a few changes and replace the existing print with the updated one from January 1. The other is 50% of single screens giving the Ranveer Singh-starrer up to make way for Sriram Raghavan’s period war drama Ikkis starting Thursday.

A trade source confirmed to SCREEN that the I&B Ministry has asked the makers to remove the word Baloch from the film. Since it’s a word that pops up quite frequently in the film, it’s unclear whether all references to Baloch have been removed from the film or only some of the more contentious ones. For instance, Akshaye Khanna’s character Rahman Dakait is hailed as a messiah of the Baloch community in the film and is called Rehman Baloch. Ranveer Singh’s character Hamza also says he is from the same community. The Baloch are shown supplying weapons to him, which he then sells to the ISI for terror attacks on India.

The source mentions that along with the removal of that word, there are a couple of more related changes, but couldn’t reveal the exact details of those alterations. However, he confirmed that theatres across India received an email from the distributor, asking them to replace the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) and play only the updated one from Thursday.

The second setback for Dhurandhar is more of a strategic move by its production house, Jyoti Deshpande-led Jio Studios. The studio has a long-standing partnership with Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films. The trade source believes that an understanding between both led Vijan to push the release of Ikkis by a week from Christmas, December 25, 2025 to the New Year’s Day.

“Dhurandhar was still going strong and breaking records at the box office throughout all of December. So, Jio Studios didn’t want to compromise on its historic run. Delaying the release of Ikkis by a week was a great move because look what happened to Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri,” adds the source.

The romantic comedy, starring Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday, and backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, managed to earn only Rs 28.82 crore within its opening week, thanks to the box office dominance of Dhurandhar. Also, the source mentions that it must’ve been an understanding between Maddock Films and Jio Studios to release Ikkis on January 1 so that it gets more screens as Dhurandhar has begun to slow down at the domestic box office now.

Ikkis is also distributed by Jio Studios, which is now okay with the idea of making Dhurandhar take a back seat. The film has already become the highest grossing Bollywood film domestically, earning Rs 722.75 crore. However, now entering its fifth week since its release on December 5, 2025, Ranveer’s film is now hovering around the Rs 10 crore mark every day this week. It’s the first Indian film ever to earn in double digits consecutively till its fourth week, but given the number of screens have been halved now, it may soon slip down to single-digit daily earnings starting next week on Monday, January 5.

While some single-screens will continue to play Dhurandhar, Jio Studios has ensured Ikkis gets a showing of around 30-40%. It’s also positioning the film strategically, pushing for more evening shows than morning on New Year’s Day given the occasion and the fact that a film like this will benefit from word of mouth slowly and surely. Based on the story of martyred Second Lieutenant Arun Kheterpal, it marks the theatrical debut of Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda and the swansong of late legendary actor Dharmendra.