MONSTER HITMAKER

How Dinesh Vijan made Maddock Films a juggernaut of Hindi cinema through a fearless, content-first approach

- By SUHANI SINGH

On APRIL 7, AS LEADING ACTORS AND FILMMAKERS FROM the Hindi film industry gathered at Taj Land's End in Mumbai to ring in Maddock Films' 20th anniversary bash, one man stood tallest— studio founder Dinesh Vijan. Dressed in a black shirt and trousers, Vijan, or Dino as he is known in industry circles, had good reason to be proud. His last two films, Stree 2 (2024) and Chhaava (2025), had grossed over Rs 1,100 crore in India alone, with Stree 2 emerging the highest grossing Hindi film ever. Rajkummar Rao, Varun Dhawan, Vicky Kaushal, Kriti Sanon and filmmakers like Sriram Raghavan and Amar Kaushik spoke effusively about the production house. “The guest list became so big that we had to go to Taj; otherwise, I'd have hosted it at our office or some little bar,” says Vijan.

STREE (2018)

Made on a shoestring budget of Rs 20-25 crore, the film took in Rs 124 crore. Two years later, Vijan would fiddle with the idea of creating a horror comedy universe by intertwining characters from Stree into Bhediya (2022). The rest is history

STREE 2 (2024)

Part II was expected to fare well but few would have predicted that it would be the highest grossing Hindi film ever domestically (Rs 585 crore). In director Amar Kaushik, Vijan has a creative collaborator who helps him build the IP [intellectual property] of the horcom universe