In just over two weeks, Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge has achieved what almost seemed impossible once. On Sunday, Dhurandhar 2 became the first Hindi film to earn ₹1000 crore net at the domestic box office.
Earlier, Bollywood films have crossed the ₹1000-crore mark, always with the help of overseas collections. But the Ranveer Singh-starrer has broken new ground, entering an elite club that only has Baahubali 2 and Pushpa 2 so far.
This marks the next step in the box-office evolution of Bollywood, which saw its first ₹1-crore hit before independence, and saw the establishment of the 100-crore club less than two decades ago.
We take a look at the progression of box-office earnings of Bollywood films and the hits that created each new ‘club’.
₹1 crore: Kismet (1943) Directed by Gyan Mukherjee, this Ashok Kumar-starrer introduced the concept of anti-heroes to Indian cinema.
₹10 crore: Mughal-e-Azam (1960) K Asif’s magnum opus was a decade in the making and ended up as the most expensive Indian film of its time.
₹50 crore: Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) It took over three decades for Indian cinema to go from ₹10 crore to ₹50 crore as Sooraj Barjatya’s family drama broke new ground.
₹100 crore: Ghajini (2008) It was another Khan - Aamir - who established the 100-crore club with Ghajini, obliterating HAHK’s box office record.
₹200 crore: 3 Idiots (2009) Barely a year later, Aamir again broke new ground as his and Rajkumar Hirani’s first collaboration - 3 Idiots - established the 200-crore club.
₹300 crore: PK (2014) Aamir Khan’s golden run continued through the 2010s, highlighted by the success of PK.
₹400 crore and ₹500 crore: Pathaan (2023) For a decade after PK’s release, pan-India films snatched the crown from Bollywood as the highest-grossers in India.
₹600 crore: Jawan (2023) But Shah Rukh Khan returned after a 5-year hiatus with Pathaan.
₹700 and ₹800 crore: Dhurandhar (2025) Even as films like Stree 2 and Chhaava crossed ₹600 crore, neither managed to surpass Jawan.
₹900 and ₹1000 crore: Dhurandhar 2 (2026) It is crazy to think that Dhurandhar’s record lasted barely three months before its own sequel went past it, and that too, with considerable ease.
