The most watched Indian film, as per footfalls in theatres, sold a whopping 25 crore tickets as per estimates.
Before box office calculations and the combinations of gross and net collections became commonplace, the success and failure of films in India was measured by how long the film ran and how many silver and golden jubilees it managed. Another good metric was measuring its total footfalls (tickets sold). If that is the metric considered to evaluate blockbusters, then the most watched Indian film of all time sold a whopping 25 crore tickets worldwide.
The most watched Indian film of all-time is...
Quite unsurprisingly, the biggest blockbuster in Indian cinema history is Ramesh Sippy’s iconic curry Western Sholay. The 1975 film was an all-time blockbuster, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of all-time upon its release, a tag it held for almost a decade. As per estimates on IMDb, Sholay saw 15-18 crore footfalls in India during its initial release as well as various re-releases across the decades. In addition, the film was also an overseas blockbuster, particularly in Soviet Russia, where it sold 4.8 crore tickets during the initial run and 6 crore tickets overall. Industry insiders say that the film had around 2 crore footfalls from the rest of the world as well, giving Sholay total global footfall of 22-26 crore.
Top 10 most watched films in India
The global footfall figures for Indian films are not available but multiple sources – IMDb, Box Office India, and Indicine – have tabulated the domestic footfalls for several major films. There too, Sholay rules the roost with 15 crore footfalls, followed by Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which had 12 crore footfalls. Mughal-e-Azam and Mother India both are at the third spot with 10 crore footfalls. Other names in the top are Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (7.4 crore), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (6.7 crore), Amar Akbar Anthony (6.2 crore), Kranti (6 crore), Bobby (5.3 crore), and Ganga Jamna (5.2 crore). Three more films – Gadar, KGF Chapter 2, and Sangam – also had 5 crore footfalls.
How Sholay’s box office numbers stack up today
Sholay did a business of Rs 35 crore worldwide after its release in 1975. When adjusted for inflation as per today’s numbers, this figure would stand somewhere around Rs 2800 crore, higher than any Indian film ever, except Mughal-e-Azam.
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 "This Indian film saw the highest footfalls in theatres")
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