Director Siddharth Anand is jubilant at the continuing success of blockbuster “Pathaan,” starring Shah Rukh Khan. The film’s revenues have surpassed those of the Hindi-language dubbed version of S.S. Rajamouli’s “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” in recent days.

“Pathaan,” produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF), has grossed $126.7 million, beating the Hindi dubbed version of “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,” which had grossed $98.8 million in 2017.

“Baahubali 2,” which was made in the Telugu and Tamil languages, earned $278 million worldwide, making it the second highest grossing Indian film of all time behind 2016’s Hindi-language “Dangal” that collected $311 million globally (much of that from mainland China). “Dangal” collected $65.6 million in India and is now the fourth highest Hindi-language grosser in the country after “Pathaan,” and the Hindi dubbed versions of “Baahubali 2” and “K.G.F: Chapter 2.”

The success of “Pathaan,” which also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, is a boost for Bollywood, which had suffered a dearth of hits in 2022. It also bucked the #BoycottBollywood narrative on social media.

“I’m happy that ‘Pathaan’ has become a game-changer for the industry. It feels incredible that ‘Pathaan’ is now the number one Hindi film in India today,” Anand told Variety. “We were said to have been boycotted by people. I’m happy that ‘Pathaan’ has become the answer to all that talk. The industry has heard enough. I’m happy that we have let our work do the talking.”

Anand was entrusted by YRF chief Aditya Chopra to start two successful Bollywood properties – “War,” starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff and “Pathaan.” Both blockbusters are part of YRF’s spy universe, which also includes the Tiger franchise, starring Salman Khan.

“What has always inspired me as a film-maker is to push the boundary and innovate. If you look at ‘War’ and now ‘Pathaan,’ you will realize that though I’m dabbling with the same genre of action, I have tried to explore in doing things that have never been seen before in India,” Anand said. “Like the detailing in ‘Pathaan’ is better than ‘War’ and it will only get better in my future projects because I’m a hungry director seeking perfection with each film. That’s what drives me, I will constantly innovate to disrupt.”

Anand has launched his production house named Marflix. His first film as a producer and director is “Fighter,” billed as India’s first aerial action franchise, starring Roshan and Padukone.

“My aspiration with Marflix is to build it as a production house that produces content which is at par with Hollywood. That’s my intent with ‘Fighter’ and I’m excited about this. I’m a proud Indian and I think we can make action entertainers that are as big as our Hollywood counterparts,” Anand said. “I have always believed that the sky is the limit for our industry and we are at the threshold to achieve global greatness consistently. I hope Marflix contributes towards this in the years to come.”

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