Indian Films With Games, Comics & Animated Spin-Offs: ‘Baahubali’ And More

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Sep 10, 2026 16:13 IST ⓘ

‘Baahubali’ to ‘Hanuman Ansh’, Indian films that expanded into video games, comics, animation and much more.

There is a moment every big Indian film dreams of: the moment the story stops being a story and starts being a world. When the hero stops living inside 150 minutes and starts living inside a comic panel, a cartoon, a phone game your cousin won't stop playing on the metro. Some of our films have pulled it off spectacularly. Others tried, spent a fortune, and left behind a beautifully weird trail of action figures and forgotten apps.

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Here are 12 Indian movies that refused to stay on the screen – starting, obviously, with the one that built an empire.

1. Baahubali (2015 & 2017)

Nobody did it bigger. SS Rajamouli's ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ (10 July 2015) and ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (28 April 2017) starred Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan – and turned “Kattappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara” into a two-year national mood. As per Sacnilk, the first film made Rs 421 crore nett in India and Rs 650 crore worldwide on a Rs 180 crore budget; the sequel obliterated everything with Rs 1,030.42 crore India nett and Rs 1,788.06 crore worldwide against a Rs 250 crore budget.

And then came the spin-offs, which is where it gets genuinely wild. ‘Baahubali: Battle of the Bold’, a digital comic from Graphic India and Arka Mediaworks, dropped on the Graphic POP app on 27 February 2017 (later printed as a graphic novel). ‘Baahubali: The Game’, a real-time strategy title from Bengaluru's Moonfrog Labs, went into beta on 27 April 2017 – a day before the sequel hit theatres. You played a Senapati of Mahishmati, trained armies, fought the Kalakeya, and it crossed 5 million downloads in four languages on a 24MB file size built for Indian phones. Amazon Prime Video ran the animated ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ (from 19 April 2017) for five seasons and 71 episodes. Anand Neelakantan wrote a whole prequel trilogy of novels, starting with ‘The Rise of Sivagami’.

Japan got an actual manga by Akira Fukaya, published by Gentosha Comics in June 2018. Disney+ Hotstar added the animated ‘Baahubali: Crown of Blood’ in May 2024. A Netflix live-action prequel, ‘Before the Beginning’, was famously shelved. And it still isn't done: after the recut ‘Baahubali: The Epic’ (31 October 2025), Rajamouli and Arka unveiled ‘Baahubali: The Eternal War’, a CG-animated feature directed by Ishan Shukla and written by The Grinch's Scott Mosier, with Prabhas voicing Amarendra – Part 1 lands in 2027.

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2. Lagaan (2001)

Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Lagaan: Once Upon a Time’ in India released on 15 June 2001 with Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley and Paul Blackthorne, and did the impossible: made a three-and-a-half-hour cricket match feel like a war film. Sacnilk logged Rs 34.35 crore nett in India and Rs 58.05 crore worldwide against a Rs 25 crore budget. Then it went and got nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The merchandising was charmingly of its era. A comic book titled ‘Lagaan: The Story’ came out alongside two colouring books, a mask book and a cricket board game, all aimed at 6-14 year olds and released in English and Hindi. The anniversary DVD box set went full collector: 11 player cards, an embossed ‘Lagaan’ coin with Bhuvan on it, and a hand-cut 35mm CinemaScope filmstrip from the actual film. No video game – this was 2001, and India's mobile gaming industry didn't exist yet.

3. Ra.One (2011)

Shah Rukh Khan spent a reported Rs 130 crore and roughly half his sanity on ‘Ra.One’, released Diwali 2011 (26 October) and directed by Anubhav Sinha, with Kareena Kapoor Khan as Sonia and Arjun Rampal as the villain. Sacnilk pegged it at Rs 116.20 crore nett in India and Rs 206.73 crore worldwide – a Below Average verdict on paper, and a film that has aged into something close to a cult object.

But as a merchandising experiment, ‘Ra.One’ was years ahead. Red Chillies tied up with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for ‘Ra.One - The Game’ on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, developed by Trine Game Studios and released on 5 October 2011 – the first time a Bollywood film got a proper console game, complete with PS2/PS3 bundle packs. UTV Indiagames built Ra.One Genesis, a social game with its own original plot built around G.One, plus digital comics based on the characters. Add toys, apparel, tablets, a Call of Duty tournament in Mumbai livestreamed on YouTube, and over 25 brand tie-ups worth around Rs 52 crore, and you get a film that lost the box office argument but basically wrote the playbook everyone uses now.

4. Singham (2011)

Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham’ hit theatres on 22 July 2011, with Ajay Devgn as Bajirao Singham, Kajal Aggarwal as Kavya, and Prakash Raj as the gloriously hammy Jaikant Shikre. A remake of the 2010 Tamil film ‘Singam’, it turned Rs 52 crore into Rs 100.50 crore nett in India and Rs 151.27 crore worldwide (Sacnilk) and was declared a Superhit – the launchpad for what is now Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe.

The genius move came seven years later. Instead of ageing the character up, they shrank him. Little Singham, a 156-part animated series from Discovery Kids, Reliance Animation and Rohit Shetty Picturez, premiered on 21 April 2018 and became a monster. It pushed Discovery Kids into the fastest-growing kids' channel slot that year, airs in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu, and has since expanded to POGO along with the prequel series Baby Little Singham and a Simmba spin-off, Smashing Simmba. Zapak Mobile Games turned it into a full games catalogue – Little Singham, Little Singham Cricket, Cycle Run, Super Skater, Ludo – with the flagship title crossing 10 million downloads. Dream Theatre picked up the licensing mandate, putting Little Singham on toys, apparel, school gear, footwear and FMCG promos. Meanwhile the grown-up version kept going: Singham Again (1 November 2024) is the franchise's biggest earner at Rs 372.41 crore worldwide.

5. Krrish 3 (2013)

Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Krrish 3’ released on 1 November 2013 with Hrithik Roshan in a double role, Priyanka Chopra, Vivek Oberoi as Kaal and Kangana Ranaut as the shapeshifting Kaya. Sacnilk recorded Rs 244.05 crore nett in India and Rs 374 crore worldwide against a Rs 94 crore budget – Blockbuster.

‘Krrish’ is the closest thing we have to a homegrown Marvel machine. Graphic India and Filmkraft launched ‘Krrish: Menace of the Monkey Men’ in 2013, written by Spider-Man veteran Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Sal Buscema – Marvel legends, drawing Hrithik. It ran as a weekly mobile comic on a dedicated Krrish app distributed by Hungama, plus a print magazine. Hungama and Gameshastra built the official ‘Krrish 3’ game for Windows phones, tablets and PCs (the franchise's first game, ‘Krrish: The Game’, came from Indiagames back in 2006). Cartoon Network aired ‘Kid Krrish’, four animated films made by Toonz Animation and Filmkraft between 2013 and 2016. And the merchandise was enormous: Dream Theatre ran roughly 250 products from Rs 50 to Rs 3,500 – action figures of Krrish, Kaal and Kaya, frisbees, yo-yos, skates, bedsheets, bean bags, candy – a merchandising deal worth Rs 18-20 crore inside a Rs 40-50 crore brand-tie-up haul. ‘Krrish 4’, with Hrithik making his directorial debut and Aditya Chopra producing, is targeting a 2027 release.

6. Dhoom 3 (2013)

Vijay Krishna Acharya's ‘Dhoom 3’ released on 20 December 2013 with Aamir Khan in a double role, Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra and Jackie Shroff. It was, at the time, an absolute juggernaut: Rs 284.27 crore nett in India and Rs 558 crore worldwide against a Rs 175 crore budget, per Sacnilk.

Here's the fun part: the game came out first, and it was arguably the bigger hit. YRF partnered with Udupi-based 99Games for ‘Dhoom:3 The Game’, a tilt-controlled superbike chase through Chicago with 32 levels, built by an 18-person team in four months. It launched exclusively on the Windows Phone Store on 25 October 2013 – nearly two months before the film – then rolled out to iOS, Android, BlackBerry 10 and Nokia feature phones. It crossed a million downloads in 20 days and eventually over 12 million globally. A sequel game, ‘Dhoom:3 Jet Speed’, arrived on 26 June 2014, swapping the bike for an aqua jet down the Chicago river.

7. Kochadaiiyaan (2014)

Soundarya Rajinikanth's ‘Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend’ released on 23 May 2014 and was, for better and worse, a genuine landmark: India's first photorealistic performance-capture film, with Rajinikanth in a triple role, Deepika Padukone making her Tamil debut, and R Sarathkumar, Aadhi, Jackie Shroff, Nassar and Shobana rounding out the cast. Shot with 48 cameras at Pinewood Studios, scored by AR Rahman, released in Tamil plus five other languages – and then torn apart for animation that hadn't quite caught up to the ambition. Against a reported Rs 125 crore budget, trade reports pegged its first-week worldwide gross at roughly Rs 42 crore, and lifetime estimates never travelled much beyond that.

The tie-in strategy, though, was properly futuristic for 2014. Hungama and Gameshastra released two mobile games in mid-March – ‘Kochadaiiyaan: Kingdom Run’ and ‘Kochadaiiyaan: Reign of Arrows’ – which together crossed a million downloads by mid-May. Karbonn Mobiles made special-edition handsets with the film pre-loaded. And roughly 400 augmented reality hoardings went up across India, letting people point their phones at a billboard and watch Rajinikanth come alive – years before AR became a marketing default. The strangest twist is the newest one: in 2026, Eros Innovation announced an AI-remastered ‘Kochadaiiyaan’ under its Eros Remastered banner, with Soundarya Rajinikanth returning to rebuild the film she made 12 years ago.

8. Bajirao Mastani (2015)

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ‘Bajirao Mastani’ released on 18 December 2015 with Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, and swept everything in sight. Sacnilk recorded Rs 184.30 crore nett in India, Rs 101 crore overseas and Rs 357 crore worldwide against a Rs 145 crore budget – a Hit, and the film that made ‘Pinga’ and ‘Malhari’ permanent wedding-playlist residents.

Its extension was the most unusual on this list. On 10 November 2015, Ranveer Singh launched ‘Blazing Bajirao’, an animated graphic web series on ErosNow – essentially a motion comic built to introduce audiences to the real Peshwa Bajirao I before the film arrived. A companion ‘Blazing Bajirao’ game followed, built around the Peshwa's conquests and distributed through ErosNow's site and its iOS and Android apps. A Bhansali period romance turning into a grungy comic-book action series remains one of Bollywood's great tonal left turns.

9. A Flying Jatt (2016)

Remo D'Souza's ‘A Flying Jatt’ released on 25 August 2016 with Tiger Shroff as a reluctant, scared-of-heights Sardar superhero, Jacqueline Fernandez, WWE's Nathan Jones as the villain Raka, plus Kay Kay Menon and Amrita Singh. Produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor's Balaji Motion Pictures on a Rs 45 crore budget, it managed Rs 38.57 crore nett in India and Rs 56.15 crore worldwide (Sacnilk) – a Flop, which is a shame, because the world-building around it was genuinely charming.

The film launched with a full transmedia kit at KidZania in Mumbai. There was a comic book, ‘A Flying Jatt: The Hands of Death’, priced at Rs 199 and sold through Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and bookstores, which picked up where the film left off. Hungama built the official endless-runner mobile game on Android, iOS, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV – with a nice multiplayer twist where the last-placed runner got eliminated every 30 seconds, and Aman, Kirti and Raka all playable. Brand Monk Licensing handled the merchandise line.

10. Shivaay (2016)

Ajay Devgn directed, produced and starred in ‘Shivaay’, released on 28 October 2016 opposite Karan Johar's ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ in one of the decade's most talked-about Diwali clashes. Sayyeshaa made her Hindi debut, with Erika Kaar, Abigail Eames, Vir Das and Girish Karnad in support. On a Rs 100 crore budget it took Rs 100.45 crore nett in India and Rs 147.29 crore worldwide (Sacnilk) – Below Average commercially, but it did win the National Film Award for Best Special Effects at the 64th National Awards, which for a self-funded passion project is not a bad consolation prize.

Its digital extension was ‘Shivaay: The Official Game’, developed by Reliance's Zapak Mobile Games for Android, putting the film's mountaineer-hero action into players' hands. It's a small footnote in a big film, but it belongs on this list for one reason: by 2016, an official movie game had stopped being a novelty and become a checkbox on every big marketing plan.

11. Kalki 2898 AD (2024)

India's most expensive film went transmedia before it even had a release date. Nag Ashwin's ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ released on 27 June 2024 with Prabhas in a dual role, Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwatthama, Kamal Haasan as Supreme Yaskin, Deepika Padukone, Disha Patani and Shobana. Sacnilk logged a Rs 600 crore budget against Rs 646.31 crore nett in India and Rs 1,042.25 crore worldwide – a Blockbuster.

The build-out around it was the most aggressive any Indian film has attempted. In July 2023, a full year before release, ‘Kalki’ became the first India-produced film to get a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, with Nag Ashwin, Prabhas, Kamal Haasan and Rana Daggubati on stage and Amitabh Bachchan beaming in from India – the five-minute teaser got an encore on audience demand. Then came Bujji & Bhairava, a two-part animated prelude from Vyjayanthi Animation and Green Gold Animation that dropped on Amazon Prime Video on 31 May 2024 in Telugu, Hindi and English, with Prabhas and Keerthy Suresh voicing their characters; it became the most-watched Telugu show in India in the first half of 2024 with 4.9 million views. On the gaming side, Krafton's BGMI signed on as official gaming partner, running a Kalki-themed in-game event with skin coupons timed to its Mecha Fusion update, plus a crossover trailer dropping Bujji and mechas into the battleground. And Mahindra & Mahindra actually built Bujji – a real, drivable version of the film's AI vehicle, with Anand Mahindra posting that “we are so proud of Nag Ashwin and his tribe of filmmakers who aren't afraid to think big.” ‘Kalki 2898 AD: Part 2’ began principal photography on 24 February 2026, minus Deepika Padukone, whose exit the makers confirmed in September 2025.

12. Hanuman Ansh (2026)

And now, the newest and by some distance the most improbable entry. ‘Hanuman Ansh’, directed by Vishal Chaturvedi, released on 7 August 2026 and told the story of Neem Karoli Baba – the Kainchi Dham saint whose global list of devotees runs from Julia Roberts to Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. It stars Shobhinaw Satyaa, an FTII-trained former assistant director who joined the film behind the camera and was cast as Maharaj-ji after a five-hour screen test, alongside Chandan K Anand and Purnima Tiwari. Script written in under a month, shot in 22 days, mostly in Chitrakoot, on a budget of Rs 2 crore.

It opened to somewhere between Rs 8-10 lakh. Then word of mouth detonated. As of Day 34, Sacnilk has it at Rs 153.13 crore nett in India and Rs 180.95 crore gross – a return that makes it one of the most extreme profit stories in recent Indian cinema, with a fifth weekend that out-earned Dhurandhar's. Hombale Films is taking it worldwide through Hombale Overseas from 11 September 2026, and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo director Trivikram Srinivas has come on board for the Telugu version's release.

Which brings us to the tie-ins – and to why this film belongs in the same list as ‘Baahubali’. Producer Namrata Singh has confirmed the team is building a video game themed around the Hanuman kavach, being developed by the studio behind FAU-G, and a comic book, with "one of the biggest comic book publishers in the country" in talks. A second and third film are planned – part two on Kainchi Dham, part three on the international chapter of Maharaj-ji's story.