From Akshay Kumar's Sky Force to Kangana Ranuat's Emergency, this year started on a dull note for the film industry, with audiences rejecting even star-led films. Bringing some respite is Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava, which has become the first film to cross the Rs 200-crore mark in 2025.
Chhaava has brought a much-needed boost to cinemas after a quiet January, with a 35 percent weekday occupancy at our cinemas since its release, said Gautam Dutta, CEO, Revenue and Operations, PVR Inox. "The film’s tax-free status in Maharashtra and Goa has further fuelled its success," he added.
While it is not clocking 90-100 percent occupancy rate, evening shows are showing 50-60 percent, said Ashutosh Agarwal, director of Starworld Cinemas.
The historical drama, made with a budget of around Rs 130 crore, has, so far, collected Rs 225 crore at the India box office and has become the ninth-fastest film to clock Rs 200 crore, joining the list of Pushpa 2, Jawan, and Animal and others.
In the six days of its release on February 14, Chhaava collected around Rs 203 crore. With a ticket sales of 5 million, the movie has also become the 10th highest ticket-selling film on movie ticketing and entertainment platform BookMyShow. For context, 20 million tickets of Pushpa 2 (released in December last year) were sold on the platform.
"Chhava has delivered a solid performance, and its strong weekday numbers indicate a promising run ahead. In its opening week, the film performed exceptionally well in the West and South regions, with North India following closely behind," said Devang Sampat, Managing Director, Cinepolis India.
Chhaava brings respite
"Chhaava had a quiet start, but then it picked up in the northern market. Even during weekdays, collections have been stable. The word of mouth has spread and that is why it is gaining momentum. The film's business is more than what we were expecting. While in Maharashtra it is a big hit, in the north, we were not expecting high collections but it has exceeded our expectations," Agarwal said.
He also said that January was extremely bad and that Chhaava is a big relief.
"January was muted since movies like Sky Force and Deva did not send the cash registers ringing at the box office. If Chhaava continues to maintain its box office momentum, it should enter the Rs 300-crore club soon and will give a flip to Bollywood for the coming months," NV Capital's Nitin Menon said.
Chhaava continues to have a magnificent run. Overall, West and North have performed well, Menon added. "Overall, the movie is on a solid footing and has given the much-needed boost to Bollywood after a series of movies underperforming at the box office," he said.
"Maharashtra is the key contributor but Delhi is also strong. The multiplexes are performing well. Mumbai is, by far, the largest contributor," pointed out Girish Johar, a producer and film trade expert.
The movie is winning hearts and ruling the box office, tweeted film trade analyst, Taran Adarsh. "Chhaava is sensational in its week one. The Vicky Kaushal-starrer has taken the box office by storm. Maharashtra is beyond terrific. It is well on track to becoming a blockbuster. The weekday numbers have astonished everyone, consistently delivering over Rs 20 crore from Monday to Thursday. Going forward, the absence of major releases this Friday (February 21) will give Chhaava an open field to score massive numbers in week 2," he said.
He also said that Rajasthan and West Bengal reported better occupancy for Chhaava.
On Chhatrapati Shivaji Jayanti (February 19), moviegoers turned out in large numbers to celebrate the legacy of the great warrior by watching Chhaava, leading to an overwhelming response across cinemas, PVR Inox's Dutta said. "We are confident that the film will cross 70-75 lakh admits by the end of its theatrical run."
Agarwal noted that Chhaava is another movie from Maddock that is doing well.
Film producer Dinesh Vijan, who founded Maddock Films, has given many recent hits like Stree 2 and Munjya. However, his last release Sky Force did not perform well at the box office.
Bleak Bollywood
Chhaava has set the ball rolling for Hindi movies which have been under-performing since last year, with Hindi cinema’s share declining to 40 percent from 44 percent in 2023. The Hindi box office saw a 13 percent decline to Rs 4,679 crore, down from its record business of Rs 5,380 crore. However, if the contribution of dubbed versions of south Indian films is taken out of the equation, the drop was a steep 37 percent at Rs 3,215 crore.
This year too, Bollywood's share in the India box office dropped -- to 28 percent last month.
Telugu language contributed almost half the month's box office, amassing 44 percent language share. Hindi language lacked major releases, besides Sky Force, and had a share below 30 percent in January 2025, according to media consulting firm Ormax's January box office analysis.
January's Rs 1,013 crore at the domestic box office was driven by the Sankranthi festive period and Telugu films, including Sankranthiki Vasthunam, collectively contributing more than Rs 480 crore to the month's box office.
"There are big Hindi films in the pipeline. So, I am hoping the Hindi business to get back its traction. Movie-watching has become an event-watching experience now, unlike habitual experience in the pre-pandemic period and we want that to come back," Johar said.
Still running: Reruns
He also highlighted the continuing trend of reruns in cinemas after 2024 became the year of re-releases.
"There were over 20 reruns so far this year across languages, Hindi being more paramount. The nostalgia factor and music resonance are working for old classics. Reruns will be there for a certain period of time as there is curiosity to watch old content and there is a vast change in consumption pattern, especially of the youth audience," Johar said.
Sanam Teri Kasam is the latest example of the winning streak that reruns continue to see in cinemas. "For Sanam Teri Kasam, collections crossed Rs 30 crore and are still counting and has become the highest grossing re-release movie. This window of re-releases has become a new window and another exploitation platform for production houses. This opportunity will continue to build in the times to come," Menon said.
However, Agarwal noted that only a select few old movies are doing well.
Out of the 50 Malayalam language re-releases last year, only a few could make a mark, according to a Mint report, citing a film trade analyst. The report, quoting an exhibitor, further said that the value of reruns will diminish, if they are exploited.
Yet, Agarwal said that there will be a lot of more old movies coming to theatres.
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