Dhadak 2

Plot

Neelesh “Neelu” Ahirwar is a law student from a historically marginalized, lower-caste community. Through the reservation system, he gains admission to a prestigious law school, where he intends to earnestly work hard and study to become a lawyer. In college, he meets Vidhi Bharadwaj, a classmate from an upper-caste, socially privileged family. Despite their different backgrounds, the two develop a close friendship which gradually blossoms into love.

As their bond deepens, the social reality around them becomes ruthlessly clear. Vidhi's family, especially her closer relatives, begin to object to the relationship. At one point, Neelesh is invited to Vidhi's sister's Nimisha's wedding. Her father Arvind reluctantly allows him to attend, but at the wedding, Neelesh is beaten by Vidhi's cousins for "daring" to associate with someone from a higher caste. Her cousin brother Raunak "Ronnie" Bhardwaj, who studies in the same class as them, even urinates on him to make this point, and while Arvind prevents further physical humiliation, he reiterates his message.

For a time, Neelesh stays away from her, but the feelings of frustration and anger within him cause him to fight for his rights in other ways. For example, instead of sitting in the back of the class with the other lower caste students, he decides to sit in the front - in a seat generally used by Ronnie. This results in more bullying, this time in the college campus, resulting in Ronnie's suspension. As part of the disciplinary action, Neelesh's father is summoned to the college, where he also gets humiliated by Ronnie's friends, further increasing Neelesh's frustration.

Shekhar, a lower-caste activist student, ends up committing suicide due to being overwhelmed by the pressures and injustices around him, and the shared traumatic experience results in a reconciliation between Neelesh and Vidhi. However, Vidhi's relatives are still against their relationship, and end up hiring Shankar, who is a vigilante "enforcer" of caste violence to kill Neelesh, who manages to escape while Shankar eventually commits suicide for the dishonor of not completing his job properly. Seeing Ronnie at the scene, he realizes who orchestrated this and chases after Ronnie all the way to the latter's home. Neelesh stops himself from killing Ronnie, but reveals all the injustice they have committed on him in public, humiliating them instead.

When Arvind's brother and Ronnie attempt to harm Neelesh further, Vidhi resists with a loud scream. Ronnie is ultimately forced to relent, as is the Bhardwaj family, though the trauma between the couple still remains despite them ending up together.

Cast

Siddhant Chaturvedi as Neelesh Ahirwar

Triptii Dimri as Vidhi Bharadwaj

Zakir Hussain as Principal Haider Ansari

Saurabh Sachdeva as Shankar

Deeksha Joshi as Nimisha, Vidhi's sister

Vipin Sharma as Mr. Ahirwar, Neelesh's father

Saad Bilgrami as Ronnie Bharadwaj, Vidhi's cousin

Harish Khanna as Arvind Bharadwaj, Vidhi's father

Priyank Tiwari as Shekhar

Aditya Thakare as Vasu

Abhay Joshi as Prakash Bharadwaj, Vidhi's uncle

Anubha Fatehpura as Mrs. Ahirwar Neelesh's mother

Manjari Pupala as Richa

Javed Khan as Himself

Production

Dhadak 2 began pre-production in April 2023, with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri leading the cast under the production of Karan Johar. The film's official announcement was made on 15 May 2025, introducing the characters of Dimri and Chaturvedi in a musical teaser. Principal photography began in November 2024. Major parts of the film were shot in Bhopal and Sehore in Madhya Pradesh. Somaiya Vidyavihar University in Mumbai and the Oriental Group of Institutes in Bhopal served as the backdrop for the college scenes in the film.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Rochak Kohli, Tanishk Bagchi, Javed-Mohsin and Shreyas Puranik while the lyrics is written by Rashmi Virag, Siddharth–Garima, Gurpreet Saini and Ozil Dalal.

The first single titled "Bas Ek Dhadak" was released on 16 July 2025. The second single titled "Preet Re' was released on 21 July 2025. The third single titled "Duniya Alag" was released on 28 July 2025.

Release

The film was initially scheduled for a theatrical release on 22 November 2024, but it was postponed multiple times—first to 21 February 2025 and then to 1 August 2025. All previous release dates were missed due to various delays, including issues related to CBFC clearance. It was later released on 1 August 2025.

Home media

The film began streaming on Netflix from 26 September 2025.

Reception

Box office

Dhadak 2 has grossed ₹29 crore (US$3.0 million) till date.

Critical reception

Dhadak 2 received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances and the themes but some critics compared it unfavorably to the original. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 63% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.5/10.

Rahul Desai of The Hollywood Reporter India commented that "Shazia Iqbal’s remake of Pariyerum Perumal is a brave and intuitive entry in the canon of anti-caste storytelling."

Subhash K Jha writing for News 24 gave 4.5 stars out of 5 and writes that "Dhadak 2 is an experience far beyond the original. This is not a remake. It is an intelligent emotional recreation which irons out the rough edges, makes the original characters sharper and more authentic, adds new ones, imbuing the end product with a vigorous glow." Divya Nair of Rediff.com awarded 4 stars out of 5 and noted that "After a long time, here's a film that does justice to the people whose stories are never heard or written about." Writing for The Hindu, Anuj Kumar called the film a mixed bag mentioning,"In Dhadak 2, a remake of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal, where caste becomes the villain in a young romance, debutant director Shazia Iqbal struggles to strike a balance between retaining the voice of the original and applying a Dharma polish to a social reality that has been mainly out of the syllabus for Bollywood biggies."

Shachi Chaturvedi of News 18 rated it 3.5/5 stars and commented that "It is a compelling romantic thriller tackling caste issues in modern India. Don't miss it.

Critic of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and said that Dhadak 2 makes an important comment on the caste system and works due to the subject, performances, hard-hitting scenes and powerful climax." Nandini Ramnath writing for Scroll.in observed that "The Hindi adaptation would have done well to dispense with the overreach of some of its source material. While Dhadak 2 starkly reveals the manner in which casteism undermines the body, intellect and soul, the 146-minute movie piles on the misery for Neelesh, particularly in the heavy-going sections leading up to the climax."

Sana Farzeen of India Today rated 3/5 stars and said that Dhadak 2 has its heart in the right place and boasts compelling performances, but it stops short of becoming the powerful, unapologetic film it had the potential to be."