Highest Grossing Indian Movies

For a long time, the conversation about Indian cinema’s earning potential felt like it was permanently capped. A few hundred crore was considered a massive hit. Then Baahubali happened. Then Dangal. Then RRR and KGF: Chapter 2. Then Pushpa 2. Then Dhurandhar.

This piece covers the highest grossing Indian movies of all time and the recent years that reshaped what those highest grossing movies in India mean — along with what’s driving them.

The All-Time List: Where Things Stand Now

Dangal remains at the top of the highest grossing movies in India of all time since its release in 2016. No film has surpassed its record. Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Baahubali 2, and Pushpa 2 follow closely.

Dangal’s position at the top is remarkable and often under-discussed. The Aamir Khan film about women’s wrestling earned its extraordinary numbers largely because of its performance in China. It collected approximately ₹2,000 crore globally, with China contributing the bulk of that figure — a market that has since become far less accessible for Indian films.

Among the top 10 highest-grossing Indian films, 5 belong to Hindi cinema, 4 to Telugu cinema, and 1 to Kannada cinema.

That split is worth noting. The dominance of Telugu and Kannada films in this list is a relatively recent shift. Before 2015, the Indian box office collection conversation was almost entirely about highest grossing Bollywood movies. What RRR, KGF: Chapter 2, Baahubali 2, and Pushpa did was demonstrate that South Indian cinema had audiences not just in their home states but across India and internationally.

Movies like Baahubali 2, RRR, KGF Chapter 2, and Pushpa 2 redefined Indian cinema’s global box office potential. Overseas collections now contribute 30 to 60 percent of total revenue for top grossing Indian films.

That overseas percentage is the structural change. When overseas collections were 5 to 10 percent of a film’s total, the global audience was a bonus. When it’s 30 to 60 percent, it shapes how films are made, marketed, and released.

The Films That Moved the Numbers

Dangal (2016) — The Outlier at the Top

Dangal’s global numbers of around ₹2,000 crore make it technically the top grossing Indian film of all time, but the context matters. Its China performance — which contributed over ₹1,200 crore to the total — came from a time when Indian films had significant market access there.

Domestically, Dangal collected around ₹387 crore net — impressive for 2016 but not in the same tier as recent blockbusters.

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017)

This is the film that changed everything in terms of expectations. Baahubali 2 became the first purely Indian production — without Chinese market assistance — to cross ₹1,000 crore in India alone. The film collected over ₹1,800 crore worldwide.

S.S. Rajamouli’s direction and the scale of the production made the case that Indian cinema could deliver spectacle comparable to Hollywood tentpole releases.

KGF: Chapter 2 (2022)

KGF: Chapter 2 was the highest-grossing film of 2022 in India. The Kannada action film with Yash starring collected around ₹1,200 crore worldwide. It opened with record-breaking numbers in Hindi markets — a remarkable achievement for a Kannada film — and demonstrated that the pan-India model could work just as well for the South as for Hindi cinema.

RRR (2022)

SS Rajamouli’s period action film with Ram Charan and Jr NTR collected approximately ₹1,200 crore worldwide and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, expanding its global footprint further.

Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024)

Allu Arjun’s Pushpa sequel rewrote several records. It became the highest-grossing Indian film of 2024, crossing ₹1,800 crore worldwide. Pushpa 2 is among the top grossing Indian films of all time and follows Baahubali 2 closely in the all-time rankings. The film’s Hindi version broke theatrical records for an Indian film in North India — something few South Indian productions had achieved at that scale.

The 2025 Blockbusters — A Year Full of Surprises

India’s top 10 highest-grossing films of 2025 collectively amassed ₹5,500 crore-plus worldwide, underlining a sharply top-heavy year at the box office. The top five films alone contributed ₹3,748 crore-plus.

Dhurandhar — The Unexpected Champion of 2025

Director Aditya Dhar’s spy action thriller Dhurandhar, headlined by Ranveer Singh, emerged as one of the biggest Indian blockbusters in recent times.

No one could have predicted that Dhurandhar, tracking for a modest opening and shrouded in doubt ahead of its release, would go on to become the only title of 2025 to cross ₹1,000 crore worldwide, cementing itself as one of the biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema.

Dhurandhar collected ₹1,350 to ₹1,428 crore worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Indian film of 2025.

What makes its run particularly striking is that the film achieved this milestone without a Gulf release and as a single-language Hindi offering, bucking the current trend of multi-language, pan-territory rollouts.

This is significant. Most recent blockbusters released in five or six languages simultaneously to capture the widest possible audience. Dhurandhar did it in Hindi only and still crossed ₹1,000 crore.

Kantara: Chapter 1 and Chhaava

Kantara: Chapter 1 collected ₹850 to ₹852 crore worldwide, placing it second in 2025. Chhaava, the Vicky Kaushal-starrer, followed at ₹797 to ₹809 crore.

Kantara: Chapter 1 was Rishab Shetty’s follow-up to the original Kantara, which had surprised everyone in 2022. The sequel carried high expectations and was broadly delivered. Chhaava was a historical drama that performed exceptionally well in the Hindi belt, confirming Vicky Kaushal’s position as a bankable lead.

Equally unthinkable was the idea that two of 2025’s most formidable releases, Coolie and War 2, arriving on the same day and fronted by crowd-pulling superstars, would collapse so dramatically.

That contrast — Dhurandhar’s unexpected dominance vs Coolie and War 2’s underperformance — is the part that makes 2025 genuinely interesting.

What’s Changed at the Indian Box Office

The Indian box office collection story of the last decade is really about three shifts happening simultaneously.

The south’s rise to national dominance. Five years ago, a South Indian film doing well in the Hindi belt was an exception. Now it’s a template. Baahubali, RRR, KGF: Chapter 2, and Pushpa demonstrated that audiences don’t care about language if the film delivers.

Overseas becoming essential, not supplementary. The number of Indian movies crossing the ₹1,000-crore milestone has grown rapidly since 2017, reflecting expanding global reach. The Indian diaspora in the US, UK, UAE, and Australia, combined with growing non-diaspora audiences in Southeast Asia and beyond, has made overseas collections a core part of the financial model for big releases.

Quality of word-of-mouth over opening weekend. Dhurandhar’s 2025 story makes this point clearly. A film tracking modestly can still become the year’s biggest hit if audiences actually like what they see and tell others.

The 2026 Picture So Far

The highest-grossing Indian film of 2026 so far is Dhurandhar: The Revenge, collecting ₹1,852 crore worldwide. Border 2 follows at ₹464 crore, with Peddi, Toxic, and Jana Nayagan completing the current top five.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge continued the momentum of the original and pushed the franchise into rare territory — a sequel that matched or exceeded its predecessor. At ₹1,852 crore worldwide, it has placed itself in the conversation for the all-time top five of highest grossing Indian movies.

FAQs About Highest Grossing Indian Movies

1. What is the highest grossing Indian movie of all time?

Dangal remains the top highest grossing Indian movie of all time since its release in 2016. No film has surpassed its record, with Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Baahubali 2, and Pushpa 2 following closely. Dangal’s total is primarily driven by its exceptional performance in China, which is a market that has since become largely inaccessible for Indian films.

2. Which Indian films crossed ₹1,000 crore at the box office?

The ₹1,000 crore club in Indian box office collection history includes Dangal, Baahubali 2, KGF: Chapter 2, RRR, Pathaan, Pushpa 2, Dhurandhar, and Dhurandhar: The Revenge among others. The number of Indian movies crossing the ₹1,000-crore milestone has grown rapidly since 2017, reflecting expanding global reach.

3. Which is the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time?

Among highest grossing Bollywood movies — strictly Hindi language films — Dangal holds the top spot globally due to its China performance. Among films that earned their totals primarily from domestic and diaspora audiences without a significant China contribution, Pathaan, Jawan, and more recently Dhurandhar and its sequel sit at the top.

4. Why has South Indian cinema started dominating the Indian box office?

The pan-India release model — releasing simultaneously in multiple languages including Hindi — has been the key mechanism. But the underlying reason is content quality. The Indian box office in 2025 thrived on shocks and surprises, demonstrating that word-of-mouth now travels faster than pre-release hype. Audiences across India responded to the scale, storytelling, and production values of films like Baahubali 2, RRR, and KGF: Chapter 2 in a way that broke old regional barriers.