Indian Cinema's Epic Journey of ₹100 - ₹1,000 Crore Box Office Gross

At a time when the entire Indian film industry is hailing and celebrating Baahubali 2's historic achievement of grossing ₹1,000 crore at the box office worldwide, we wanted to take our readers through this fascinating journey from where it all started.

The challenge of diversity

Unlike in the USA where there is no language-constraint for Hollywood films, India is a diverse nation which has 20+ official languages. It is a challenge for any film to appeal nationwide since the ethnicities of the people are vastly different. However, good films across different languages have been able to cut across linguistic and geographic barriers, and create box office records.

The journey to ₹1,000 Crore 

It all started with Salman Khan's Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, which was the first Indian film to gross ₹100 crore worldwide in 1994. Aamir Khan has been one of the most prolific box office grossers – his 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3 and PK were the first films to gross ₹300 crore, ₹500 crore and ₹700 crore respectively. Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express was the first film to gross ₹400 crore.

Surprisingly, although Hindi is spoken by more than 50% of the Indian population, a South Indian film, Baahubali 2 becomes the first Indian film to cross ₹1,000 crore gross worldwide. According to trade pundits, the movie's gross is expected to cross ₹1,500 crore soon.

Southern Box Office Records

Who else other than Superstar Rajinikanth can be a pioneer in creating box office records from the South? His Sivaji and Endhiran were the first South Indian films to gross ₹100 crore and ₹200 crore worldwide, while Kamal Haasan's Dasavatharam was the first film to gross ₹150 crore. Baahubali 1 and Baahubali 2 grossed ₹500+ crore and ₹1,000+ crore respectively.

Aamir Khan – The Domestic Box Office King

When it comes to domestic market alone, Aamir Khan is an undisputed king as his Ghajini, 3 Idiots, PK and Dangal were the first films to gross ₹100 crore, ₹200 crore, ₹400 crore and ₹500 crore respectively.

Frequent ₹100 Crore Club Visitors

Considering the huge market Indian films have these days, ₹100 crore club has become an everyday affair, especially for the Khans of Bollywood. Salman Khan leads the list with ten ₹100+ crore club movies, which includes five ₹300+ crore club movies, one ₹200 Crore Club movie and four ₹100 crore club movies. Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan are fast catching up with Salman Khan, while Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn also frequently star in ₹100 crore club movies. From the South,  Rajinikanth has one 300+ crore club movie, one 200 crore club movie and two 100 crore club movies to his credit.

The next big question

Now that Baahubai 2 has proved that art has no language, will Shankar – Rajinikanth's 2.0 further push the envelope and gross ₹2,000 crore at the box office?