Top 10 Highest-Grossing Indian Movies

Since RRR’s Natu Natu and Indian documentary The Indian Elephant has triumphantly clinched the Oscars this year, let us see the movies that have made a mark not just Nationally, but globally around. 

Over the past decade, Indian Cinema had a massive drift in its filmmaking. From improvement in video quality and involvement of graphics and VFX, to spell bounding cinematography, I would proudly say Indian Filmmaking has been progressing rapidly. 

Where films like Barfi, and Lagaan are making their way to the Oscars nominations, many other Indian films are loved by cinephiles and audiences worldwide. Let us see these lists of movies that have broken many box office records. 

Top 10 Highest-Grossing Indian Films: 

1. DANGAL (2016):  Action|Drama|Biography 

IMDB rating: 8.3⭐

Worldwide gross: 1924.7cr 

Indian Box Office gross: 538.03 cr

Dangal made a record as it was the first Indian film that successfully made a business of more than 300 crores. And after years of its release tops the charts of the highest-grossing films in India. 

Mr. Perfectionist of Bollywood, Aamir Khan starrer this 161 mins long movie is inspired by the real-life Phogat family who had brought multiple renowned titles to the country from wrestling worldwide. 

This movie was also the debut movie of Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sania Malhotra who portrayed the life of Indian women wrestlers Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat respectively. 

Lead star cast: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Talwar, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Sania Malhotra, Zaira Wasim. 

Director: Nitesh Tiwari. 

2. Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017): Action|Drama

IMDB Rating: 8.2⭐

Worldwide gross: 1749 cr 

Indian Box Office gross: 500 cr

This 167 mins long motion film has broken all the previous box office records breaking its first part records as well. 

This epic drama was a hit for its iconic scenes, action, and storyline, finally opening the layers of suspense of the most asked question in the country “Kattapa ne Bahubali ko kyu mara”. 

Lead star cast: Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggupati, Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishna, Tamanaah Bhatiya, Nassar.

Director: SS Rajamouli. 

3. RRR (2022): Action|Drama

IMDB Rating: 7.9⭐

Worldwide gross: 1230.3cr 

Indian Box Office gross: 307cr

This historical drama has broken all the records entering the league of third highest earning films globally along with Dangal and Bahubali 2 crossing 1000cr business worldwide. 

This 187 mins long emotional action drama movie revolves around Alluri Sitaraman Raju and Komaram Bheem fighting against the colonial Britishers in India. 

Natu Natu from this film created history by being the first Indian song to be winning the Best Original movie song in the 95th Oscars award. 

Lead star cast: Ram Charan, N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgan, Sriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, Olivia Morris. 

Director: S.S. Rajamouli. 

4. K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022): Action|Crime|Drama

IMDB Rating: 8.3⭐

Worldwide gross:  1207.9cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 453cr 

This Action-packed drama movie has broken many records in 2022 still being the biggest weekend opener. 

This movie had a budget of 100 crore which is one of the highest Kannada movie budgets. 

This part row the story that was left in the first part further and is most intriguing with 168 mins full of blood-soaked action and all the Indian emotions like faith, relations, respect, purpose, rage, promises, etc enhance the essence of this crime action movie.

The Cast performance, along with the spectacular cinematography, breathtaking action sequence, and MacGuffin of the story serves the audience well to be sticking to the story till the very end. 

Lead star cast: Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty, Prakash Raj, Archana Jois.

Director: Prashanth Neel.

5. Pathaan (2023): Action|Adventure|Thriller 

IMDB Rating: 6.1⭐

Worldwide gross: 1049.6cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 653.92cr 

This 167 mins long movie is just not the action-packed another Bollywood masala movie. It is a culture. It is the comeback of the King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan. 

Along with driving the crowd crazy, SRK’s comeback has been breaking all records since its release. Breaking Bahubali 2’s record of being the Highest grossing Hindi film ever. 

This movie revolves around an Indian spy Pathan (SRK) that fights against the villain Jim (John Abraham) who gangs up with all the corrupt mercenaries to plot heinous damage to his homeland holding grudges from the past.

Deepika has been depicted as a Pakistani Spy agent to support Pathan in his missions and also his love interest. 

Lead star cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, Salman Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Ashutosh Rana, Manish Wadhwa. 

Director: Siddharth Anand. 

6. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015): Action|Adventure|Comedy 

IMDB Rating: 8.1⭐

Worldwide gross: 858.8cr 

Indian Box Office collection: 444.92cr 

Releasing movies before Eid has been Salman Khan’s lucky charm or a Khan Culture in Bollywood for years now. And Bajrangi Bhaijaan proved that Salman Khan’s fans hold the same craze for him as before. 

This 163 mins adventure drama is a feel-good movie full of purity of emotions, light humor, Intercountry culture & drama, and some of the best songs of the album. 

While Salman Khan plays the role of Pawan, a Hindu brahmin lord Hanuman devotee, Kareena Kapoor is his supporting love interest. This movie is the debut film of Harshaali Malhotra who won the hearts of audiences and won many awards for her performance including Bharat Ratna. 

Harshaali plays the part of Munni who is a speech-impaired girl who is separated from her family that belongs to Pakistan. Soon Pawan finds this girl and puts everything at stake to reunite Munni with her family. 

Lead Star Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Harshaali Malhotra, Adnan Sami, Om Puri, Sharat Saxena.

Director: Kabir Khan. 

7. Secret Superstar (2017): Drama|Music 

IMDB Rating: 7.8⭐

Worldwide gross: 830.8cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 90cr 

Aamir Khan has given some of the charts busting hits from Dangal, to Secret Superstar, Dhoom 3 extra. And with just a budget of 16 crores, this movie has earned 6000℅ in Returns on Investment (ROI). 

Aamir Khan Production also won an award from China’s film industry. 

This 150 mins long movie is an emotional journey of a 15-year-old girl Insia Malik (Zaira Wasim) who dreams about becoming a singer and initially starts singing under her burka.

While her abusive father Farookh (Raj Arjun) objects her to fulfilling her dream, her mother Najms (Meher Vij) supports Insia along with the aid of Shakti Kumar (Aamir Khan) a very colorful character and a Music Director. This movie has given some good songs from the album as well. 

Lead star cast: Aamir Khan, Zaira Wasim, Meher Vij, Raj Arjun.

Director: Advait Chandan. 

8. PK (2014): Comedy|Drama|Sci-fi 

IMDB Ratings: 8.1⭐

Worldwide gross: 742.3cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 448.7cr 

Releasing right before the big holiday of Christmas and New Year, almost every Indian watched this movie in theaters making it a big hit. 

The story revolves around an innocent alien (Aamir Khan) who lost his communication device and cannot go home just like the iconic Indian alien Jaadu. He gets his name PK from people calling out this notorious alien “Pike ho ka” translated as “Are you drunk?”.

While learning about the human lifestyle this alien asks very thought-provoking questions about the flaws of the social system. He then meets a heartbroken reporter Jaggu, played by Anushka Sharma who with the help of PK exposes imposter Tapasvi Maharaj (Saurabh Shukla). 

Though the story might not have an unexpected suspense plot, the storyline keeps the audience intact. This movie also stars Late Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, and Sanjay Dutt in major supporting roles. 

Lead star cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Lt. Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Sanjay Dutt, Saurabh Shukla. 

Director: Rajkumar Hirani.

9. 2.0 (2018): Action|Sci-fi|Thriller 

IMDB Rating: 6.1⭐ 

Worldwide gross: 647.7cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 257.02cr 

The Thalaiva (King) and superstar of India hailing from the South Indian industry, Rajinikanth is a legend himself. This movie crossed 520 crores of business in its opening weekend. It was also the most expensive budgeted Indian movie at its time of release. 

As the second installment of the Enthiran (Robot) film series, 2.0 is a standalone sequel to Robot (2010) which was loved by the audience across the country.

The story is about the Humanoid Robot Chitti the Robot played by Rajnikanth who plays a double role as Dr. Vaseegaran as well. After 8 years of the first film, Chitti the Robot is reactivated again with new updates, to fight against deceased ornithologist Pakshi Raj played by Akshay Kumar.  

This action-based 148 mins long movie is a full package of a sci-fi thriller. 

Lead star cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson. 

Director: S. Shankar.

10. Sultan (2016): Action|Drama|Sport 

IMDB Rating: 7⭐

Worldwide gross: 614.9cr 

Indian Box Office Collection: 421.25cr 

People say the Khans have lost their charm, but years after their movies’ releases they still top the charts. Sultan was the first Indian film to gross 206 crores in just 3 days of its release and broke records of prior bookings as well. 

This 170 mins Sports Drama is inspired by real-life wrestler Sultan Ali Khan played by Salman Khan who gained weight and worked hard on building a body again for the film. Anushka Sharma plays the love interest and state-level wrestler, Aarfa Hussain. 

This movie shows the challenges faced by Sultan Ali Khan and is an emotional roller coaster ride. 

Lead star cast: Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma.

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar. 

• Conclusion: India is the largest producer of making films in the world. And some of them have become blockbusters. There are more movies than the 10 listed above such as Bahubali Part 1, Sanju, Tiger Zinda hai, Padmavat, Bajirao Mastani, Dhoom 3, Ponniyin Selvian Part I, War, Brahmastra, Saho, Vikram, Kantara, Andhadn, 3 idiots, Kick, etc.