2025 Box-Office India Report Card: From 'Chhaava' and 'Thudarum' to 'Good Bad Ugly'; Which Film (and Industry) is Winning The Race?

The Indian film industry, from a box-office point of view, has had an interesting year so far. After six months, a pattern has emerged from films across the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam film industries, where some big-budget highly-anticipated titles flopped, mid-budget films found sweet success, and pandemic-sidelined genres made a roaring comeback. But the biggest surprise? The highest grosser of the first half of 2025, across industries, was delivered by an actor who had a breakthrough in an indie film a decade ago.

Here's the breakdown of how the box-office figures across industries played out (all numbers are India net figures from industry tracker Sacnilk).

HINDI

By the end of last year, when trade was putting together a list of Hindi films that might become huge blockbusters in the first half of 2025, Salman Khan's Sikandar was potentially eying top spot. It was supposed to be the superstar's grand Eid outing, teaming up with Kick producer Sajid Nadiadwala and being directed by Ghajini helmer AR Murugadoss. When the film was released, it tanked at the box-office.

Despite the big film bombing, the Hindi film industry saw a major surprise in how another film went way beyond expectations and emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of all time: Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava. Based on the life of Sambhaji Maharaj, the Laxman Utekar directorial, produced by Dinesh Vijan, netted a whopping ₹600 crore across India, breaking several records set by previous blockbusters, including Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan.

A still from 'Chhaava'

The film remains the biggest hit of the year so far, followed by other successes like Ajay Devgn's Raid 2, which put up a fantastic total of ₹173 crore, and Sitaare Zameen Par. The Aamir Khan-starrer started slow at the box-office, but made up for it in the following week. The comedy is now expected to finish its lifetime run within the range of ₹175 to 180 crore, a huge win for the drama genre post-pandemic.

Akshay Kumar-led comedy Housefull 5, which had a good Eid weekend last month, managed to clock in ₹180 crore in its lifetime. Kumar's Kesari Chapter 2, armed with favourable word of mouth, minted around ₹90 crore, the same range as Sunny Deol's Jaat, which stood at around ₹88 crore.

The Hindi film industry will hope to have a good second half, starting with War 2, as the Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR actioner gears up for release in August. The other biggies in the year include Ayushmann Khurrana's Thamma, Kumar's Jolly LLB 3, as well as Alia Bhatt and Sharvari's Alpha.

TELUGU

While Sankranthi season started slow for Telugu with Ram Charan and Shankar’s Game Changer flopping (grossing ₹131.2 crore domestically), a few other films held fort. Anil Ravipudi’s Sankranthiki Vasthunam, an action comedy starring Daggubati Venkatesh and Aishwarya Rajesh, grossed almost ₹187 crore at the Indian box-office, quickly becoming a blockbuster. Then came Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Daaku Maharaaj, which fared decently with ₹91 crore. Wrapping up the season, Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi’s Thandel fared well, grossing about ₹66 crore in the country.

Among the other big titles that made a splash this year are Sailesh Kolanu’s Hit: The Third Case (the third film in the investigative series), and Sekhar Kammula’s Kuberaa. The Nani film grossed ₹80.97 crore at the Indian box office, while the Dhanush-starrer grossed ₹83.52 crore.

The real surprise this year were the smaller films like Ram Jagadeesh’s Court: State Vs a Nobody, which grossed ₹40.7 crore India net, and buddy comedy Mad Square, which raked in ₹50 crore. All eyes were on Vishnu Manchu’s Kannappa, a pan-Indian feature co-starring Mohanlal, Prabhas and Akshay Kumar. While it might still be too early to declare its box-office results, the film has only made a tepid ₹28.6 crore India net since its release on June 27.

The industry still has plenty to look forward to the second half of the year with releases such as Vijay Deverakonda’s Kingdom, Pawan Kalyan’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu, Prabhas’s The RaajaSaab, and Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s Telusu Kada.

MALAYALAM

It’s been a year of superhit thrillers in Malayalam cinema, with the year opening strongly with Asif Ali’s Rekhachithram in January. The bulk of the year’s collections too came from other thrillers as well, with Mohanlal’s Thudarum, directed by Tharun Moorthy, becoming the all-time highest grosser in the state and the first film to collect ₹100 crore from Kerala alone. The film ended its pan-India run at around ₹122 crore. Mohanlal’s other blockbuster was L2: Empuraan, which netted ₹106 crore.

Officer On Duty, starring Kunchacko Boban, was the other thriller that broke several records. The movie about a police officer recovering from PTSD collected around ₹31 crore.

A still from 'Alappuzha Gymkhana'

Among the top five highest-grossing films of the year, the only comedy is Nalsen’s Alappuzha Gymkhana, the 'anti-sports drama' which went on to become the biggest hit of the Vishu season. It collected over ₹44 crore across India. Other hits included Tovino’s Narivetta and Dileep’s family comedy Prince and Family.

Upcoming releases of the year, which are expected to continue the industry’s good run, include Mohanlal’s homecoming with Sathyan Anthikad, titled Hridayapoorvam. Mammootty is also expected to regain his form with Kalamkaval, after two misfires (Dominic And The Ladies’ Purse and Bazooka). Fahadh Faazil’s Odum Kuthira Chadum Kuthira is also expected to maintain momentum. 

TAMIL

Kollywood had a much more complicated year, with quite a few sure-shot bets turning out to be major misses. Apart from Ajith Kumar's Good Bad Ugly (₹153 crore all India net), all the superstar films of the year have underperformed. This includes Ajith’s Vidaamuyarchi, Kamal Haasan’s Thug Life, Suriya’s Retro and Dhanush’s Kuberaa (although a hit in Telugu).

Instead, it’s the smaller films that brought back much cheer to the movie business. Pradeep Ranganathan’s Dragon became one of the year’s biggest hits, collecting over ₹102 crore across India and making Ranganathan one of the newest stars of the industry as well. Tourist Family, with Sasikumar and Simran, became the other surprise blockbuster, amassing a massive ₹61 crore domestic net on a seemingly smaller budget.

The other unprecedented success story came in the form of the Pongal release Madha Gaja Raja, which collected nearly ₹48 crore, despite the film being over 10 years old. Maaman, with Soori and Aishwarya Lakshmi, was the other success story, with the B and C centres contributing generously to the film’s collections, which stood at around ₹39 crore.

The industry might anchor itself with mamonths hits, starting with Rajinikanth’s Coolie, set to release in August, where it will hopefully set the grounds for a stronger second half.

KANNADA

Kannada films have had a slow start this year, even if a few small films have managed to surprise with its content. Hemanth M Rao’s first production, Agnyathavasi, was a fine atmospheric thriller starring Rangayana Raghu. Diganth’s Edagaiye Apaghatakke Karana, a quirky comedy that explores the plight of lefties, managed to impress audiences. But from a box-office point of view, three films topped the ladder. Navneeth’s horror-comedy Choo Mantar raked in ₹5.8 crore India nett, and this was followed by Naveen Reddy’s Maadeva, which made ₹5.65 crore and Pavan Bhat’s Yuddhakaanda Chapter 2, which did ₹4.81 crore. 

All eyes are now on Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: Chapter 1 and Arjun Janya’s 45, starring Raj B Shetty, Shivarajkumar and Upendra, to revive the industry’s spirits.