Taapsee Pannu Explains Gandhari’s Unusual Week 2 Surge as Viewership Jumps to 9.6 Million

Taapsee Pannu reflects on Gandhari’s remarkable second-week growth

Taapsee Pannu’s Gandhari has taken an unusual route on the streaming charts. Instead of experiencing the conventional decline that often follows a film’s opening week, the action thriller grew substantially in its second week, recording 9.6 million views after 5.9 million views in Week 1. Netflix’s published data also placed the film at No. 1 on its global non-English film chart for the second week.

For Taapsee, the increase is significant because it suggests that the film continued attracting viewers after its initial release window rather than relying only on opening-week curiosity. Speaking about the response, she linked the performance to audiences connecting with the film's central story and characters.

The numbers give Gandhari an interesting streaming trajectory: 5.9 million views in its first week, followed by 9.6 million in its second. That represents an increase of more than 60% week-on-week.

What makes Gandhari’s Week 2 performance unusual?

Streaming releases do not follow exactly the same pattern as theatrical films. A theatrical film can benefit from weekend footfalls, while an OTT title can continue accumulating viewers as people discover it through recommendations, charts and conversations.

Gandhari appears to have benefited from that longer discovery window.

The film premiered on September 3, 2026, and its first-week figure of 5.9 million views put it among the stronger opening performances for Indian Netflix Original films. In its second week, however, the number rose to 9.6 million.

That rise is particularly notable because the film simultaneously climbed from No. 3 to No. 1 on Netflix's global non-English film chart.

A story built around a mother’s fight

The response also needs to be viewed in the context of what Gandhari is actually about.

The film follows Bani, played by Taapsee Pannu, whose daughter is kidnapped. During her attempt to pursue those responsible, Bani loses her eyesight and eventually decides to take matters into her own hands.

Netflix describes the film as an action-thriller centred on a mother who refuses to stop searching for her child. The story is set in the fictional town of Joypurra and combines crime, mystery, action and emotional drama.

The film is written and produced by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Devashish Makhija. Its ensemble includes Ishwak Singh, Mita Vashisht, Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee and Jatin Sarna.

That combination gives the film a relatively specific emotional foundation: the action is tied directly to Bani's search for her daughter rather than existing independently of the central character.

Taapsee Pannu and Kanika Dhillon’s creative partnership

Gandhari is also another collaboration between Taapsee Pannu and writer-producer Kanika Dhillon.

The pair previously worked together on the Haseen Dillruba films, and Gandhari takes their collaboration into a substantially different genre space. Netflix described the project as an action thriller focused on the bond between a mother and her child when the film was announced.

For Taapsee, the physical demands of the role were another important part of the project. Netflix's production announcement described Bani as one of her most physically demanding roles, while the actor had previously spoken about wanting a role that would challenge her through action and a deeper emotional journey.

The second-week numbers put Gandhari in notable company

The 9.6-million figure becomes more meaningful when compared with other Indian titles on Netflix.

According to the published Netflix viewership figures cited in contemporary reporting, Gandhari recorded 9.6 million views in its second week, compared with 6.4 million for Jaane Jaan and 8.2 million for Dhurandhar in their respective second weeks.

The comparison should be understood as a viewership snapshot rather than a direct measure of overall film quality. Netflix's weekly views are influenced by factors including release timing, availability, audience geography and the amount of time viewers spend watching a title.

What the numbers clearly establish is that Gandhari experienced a substantial increase in its second week rather than the typical decline associated with a title losing momentum.

Why the global response matters?

One of the more interesting aspects of the performance is the film's movement beyond its Indian audience.

The story is rooted in a fictional Indian setting and revolves around a very personal relationship between a mother and her daughter. Yet the film reached the top of Netflix's global non-English film chart in its second week.

That does not necessarily mean every element of the film travelled equally well across markets. But it does indicate that the central premise was able to attract viewers across Netflix's international audience.

Netflix itself positioned Gandhari as a story combining an Indian setting with universal themes of love, sacrifice and determination.

The Celebrity Hour Take

The most interesting part of Gandhari's performance is not simply the 9.6-million number. It is the direction of the movement.

A strong opening can sometimes reflect curiosity around a major release or star. A second-week increase tells a somewhat different story: people continued discovering the film after its first week, and its visibility increased rather than faded.

That makes Gandhari a useful example of how streaming success can develop differently from the traditional opening-week model.

Taapsee Pannu's interpretation of the numbers also highlights an important distinction. Viewership alone cannot establish why every individual person watched a film. But when a title's weekly audience rises by more than 60% and its global chart position improves at the same time, the data does demonstrate sustained consumption rather than an immediate post-release drop.

For Gandhari, that second-week trajectory has become an important part of the film's story and potentially one of its most notable achievements since release.

Sources & Verification

This article was independently researched using Netflix's official announcement and title information, Netflix's published Top 10 data and contemporary reporting on Taapsee Pannu's comments regarding the film's second-week performance. Netflix confirms the film's premise, cast, writer-producer and director, while its published viewership data provides the relevant weekly chart context.

The 5.9-million Week 1 and 9.6-million Week 2 figures, along with the reported global chart movement, were cross-checked against published coverage of Netflix's data. Taapsee Pannu's interpretation of the increase is presented as her attributed view of the performance, not as an independently established explanation for every viewer's behaviour.

The article has been written independently for The Celebrity Hour and does not reproduce the supplied publication's structure or analysis.