Gandhari Netflix Success Explained: Why Taapsee Pannu’s Film Is Growing Stronger in Week 2

Taapsee Pannu’s Gandhari is showing an interesting trend on Netflix — and its second-week performance may be more significant than its opening numbers.

The action thriller recorded 9.6 million views globally during its second week on Netflix, according to the platform’s weekly viewing data. That is a substantial increase from the 5.9 million views it registered in its first week.

Rather than losing momentum after its opening days, Gandhari actually attracted more viewers in Week 2.

What happened in Week 2?

Gandhari premiered on Netflix on September 3, 2026. The film recorded 5.9 million views during its first week and appeared at No. 3 on Netflix's global non-English film chart.

During September 7–13, however, the film climbed to the No. 1 position on the global non-English film chart, with 9.6 million views and 18.7 million viewing hours.

That means its weekly view count increased by more than 60%.

Gandhari's Netflix numbers

Week	Views	Viewing Hours	Global Non-English Ranking
Week 1	5.9 million	11.9 million	No. 3
Week 2	9.6 million	18.7 million	No. 1
Total	15.5 million	30.6 million	—

The figures show something important: Gandhari did not depend entirely on its initial release-day curiosity.

Why is the second week important?

For streaming films, the first few days can be driven by existing fans, promotional campaigns and curiosity surrounding a new release.

A stronger second week can indicate that the film continued reaching new audiences after its initial launch.

One possible reason is word-of-mouth discovery. Viewers who watched the film during its opening week may have encouraged others to watch it later.

The available Netflix figures show that Gandhari's Week 2 audience was significantly larger than its Week 1 audience. However, the numbers themselves do not establish exactly why viewers increased, so factors such as recommendations, social-media discussion and international discovery should be viewed as possible explanations rather than confirmed causes.

Gandhari's story may have helped its international appeal

Netflix describes Gandhari as a thriller centred on Bani, a mother who loses both her eyesight and her daughter after a kidnapping and decides to pursue those responsible herself.

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

The story combines a personal family conflict with action, mystery and crime elements.

That combination can make a film easier to discover outside its original market because audiences do not necessarily need prior knowledge of a particular franchise or universe to understand the central emotional conflict.

Gandhari vs Dhurandhar: What the numbers actually show

The comparison with Dhurandhar has attracted attention because Gandhari's 9.6 million second-week views are higher than the 8.2 million views recorded by Dhurandhar in its second week on Netflix.

Dhurandhar had recorded 7.6 million views in its first week and 8.2 million in its second week, according to Netflix's weekly figures.

However, these numbers should not be interpreted as a direct measurement of which film is the bigger overall success.

Netflix viewership can be affected by release timing, availability, film length, audience geography, marketing and how long a title remains available during a particular reporting period.

So the more interesting takeaway is this:

Gandhari's Week 2 performance is unusually strong because its audience increased rather than declined.

Gandhari has now crossed 15 million views

Combining its first two reported weeks gives Gandhari approximately 15.5 million views on Netflix.

The film therefore moved from 5.9 million views in Week 1 to 9.6 million in Week 2.

The second-week performance also helped the movie reach the top position on Netflix's global non-English film chart for that reporting week.

According to reported Netflix data, the movie also reached the No. 1 position in several international markets, demonstrating that its audience was not limited to India.

What this means for Taapsee Pannu

For Taapsee Pannu, Gandhari represents another Netflix project built around a female-led central character.

Netflix's own announcement described Bani as a woman determined to find her daughter while confronting increasingly dangerous circumstances.

The second-week numbers provide another data point for the growing audience for such streaming-led Hindi films.

Rather than relying only on theatrical box-office performance, streaming success allows films to find audiences gradually across different countries.

The bigger OTT lesson

The most interesting part of Gandhari's performance isn't simply that it crossed another viewership milestone.

It is the shape of the growth.

A film that attracts 5.9 million views in its first week and then rises to 9.6 million in its second week demonstrates how streaming audiences can build after release.

That makes Week 2 an important metric when looking at the long-term performance of a Netflix movie.

For Gandhari, the next question is whether the film can maintain its global visibility in the coming weeks or whether its viewership will begin to settle after this major second-week jump.

For now, the numbers clearly show that Gandhari has become one of the notable Indian Netflix film performers of 2026, with 15.5 million views accumulated across its first two reported weeks.