Aditya Dhar’s ‘Dhurandhar’ franchise enjoyed a record-breaking run at the box office, ending its theatrical journey with a worldwide gross of over Rs 3300 crore. Headlined by Ranveer Singh, the action spectacle emerged as the second-highest-grossing Indian film of all time, trailing only Aamir Khan’s ‘Dangal’. While the film’s record remains intact for now, trade analyst and exhibitor Vishek Chauhan believes Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming epic ‘Ramayana’ has the potential to surpass it.Chauhan reflected on the massive success of ‘Dhurandhar’ and credited its broad commercial appeal for resonating with audiences across demographics.“Whenever you make a film which has all emotions, every element, with all genres, you will reap fantastic results, case in point – Dhurandhar. It sits right up there. It has all the masala ingredients, everything out together. Dhurandhar is outstanding, just phenomenal. People say that part two was weaker than the first part, but the second one was classic commercial filmmaking, taken a few notches higher,” he said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan. Praising Aditya Dhar’s execution, Chauhan said the film reminded him of the grand entertainers of an earlier era.“It was absolutely brilliant. When I was watching it, I knew that the film will break records, it is fire. This one is unstoppable, and you can’t say when it will stop. It has great sensibility. I was made to recall the filmmaking of Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Desai. There was a satisfaction in killing the villain also, audience gets catharsis from such things.”However, despite his admiration for ‘Dhurandhar’, Chauhan believes that ‘Ramayana’ is the one film capable of setting a new benchmark at the box office.“The buzz is very good, it is a subject very close to people’s hearts. The way Ranbir is looking and the kind of star cast the film has – including Sunny Deol, Yash, the director is also good. So, I have no doubt that the film will break records. And if that film is able to land, you’ll see that it will smash Dhurandhar’s record. The range of that film is crazy. People will come to the cinemas from everywhere, even from villages,” he said.According to Chauhan, the film’s potential goes far beyond conventional box-office expectations, provided it connects with audiences emotionally.“It will operate on a different level. It just has to land properly and connect with the audience. Like Adipurush couldn’t connect with people. It missed the mark. But still, it had an amazing opening, around Rs 35 crore in Hindi language. So, I feel that sky is the limit with Ramayana. Knit pickers can keep picking VFX and other things, we will keep doing our business.”Produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios and DNEG, ‘Ramayana’ features Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana and Sunny Deol as Hanuman. Conceived as a two-part cinematic saga, the first installment is scheduled to release around Diwali on November 6.Reportedly mounted on a combined budget of approximately Rs 4,000 crore, the mythological epic has already generated considerable excitement among audiences, with its first teaser drawing widespread attention and sparking discussions about its scale, cast and visual effects.