Most Profitable Indian Films Ever: Rs 2 Cr ‘Hanuman Ansh’ Crosses Rs 100 Crore

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Sep 07, 2026 14:31 IST ⓘ

A look at the most profitable Indian movies.

Some box-office stories arrive wearing a superstar, a holiday weekend and a marketing campaign the size of a small country. ‘Hanuman Ansh’ came with none of those advantages. Vishal Chaturvedi’s devotional drama opened to just Rs 10 lakh on August 7, spent its first fortnight below Rs 1.5 crore, and then behaved as though someone had secretly swapped its box-office report with that of a tentpole. By its 31st day, the film had crossed the Rs 100 crore net milestone and reached Rs 122.13 crore net in India.

Its fifth Sunday alone brought in Rs 22.75 crore – more than 200 times its opening day. With the overseas release scheduled only for September 11, its Rs 144.40 crore worldwide gross through September 6 is effectively its India gross. Against a reported production budget of Rs 1.8–2 crore, that is an extraordinary gross-to-budget multiple of roughly 72 times and counting.

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Before the calculators begin dancing, one important caveat: worldwide gross is not the same as money retained by a producer. Cinemas, distributors and taxes all take a share. The films below are therefore best understood as spectacular theatrical returns relative to their reported production costs.

1. Hanuman Ansh

Released on August 7, 2026, ‘Hanuman Ansh’ was written and directed by Vishal Chaturvedi and stars Shobhinaw Satyaa as Neem Karoli Baba, with Vihaan Shedge, Purnima Tiwari and Chandan Anand in key roles. The biographical-devotional drama draws on the revered spiritual figure’s life and teachings, and reportedly cost between Rs 1.8 crore and Rs 2 crore to make.

The box-office trajectory is the sort analysts usually dismiss as impossible until it happens. After two very quiet weeks, word of mouth turned the film into a late-blooming juggernaut: through day 31, it stood at Rs 122.13 crore net in India and Rs 144.40 crore worldwide, according to Sacnilk. That is about 61 times the reported budget in India net and 72 times in worldwide gross – and the film was still adding shows when these figures were frozen.

ALSO READ | How Rs 2 Crore ‘Hanuman Ansh’ Became India’s Most Profitable Film Of 2026

2. Laalo - Krishna Sada Sahaayate

If ‘Hanuman Ansh’ is 2026’s miracle, ‘Laalo’ is the Gujarati blockbuster that makes even that miracle look over-budgeted. Directed by Ankit Sakhiya and released on October 10, 2025, the devotional drama stars Karan Joshi, Reeva Rachh, Shruhad Goswami and Mishty Kadecha. Its rickshaw-driver hero becomes trapped in a farmhouse, where visions of Lord Krishna force him to confront the life from which he has been running.

The film was reportedly made for only Rs 50 lakh, began with a tiny Rs 2 lakh opening and then grew through sustained word of mouth. Sacnilk’s updated lifetime tally records Rs 97.07 crore net in India and Rs 122.25 crore worldwide – roughly 245 times that reported production budget.

3. Secret Superstar

Advait Chandan’s ‘Secret Superstar’, released on October 19, 2017, stars Zaira Wasim, Meher Vij and Raj Arjun, with Aamir Khan in an extended role. The film follows Insia, a gifted teenager who hides her identity while uploading songs online because her abusive father opposes her ambitions. Reportedly produced for Rs 15 crore, it performed well in India – but its real encore began abroad.

Sacnilk records Rs 63.40 crore net in India and Rs 912.75 crore worldwide, with the bulk of that extraordinary global total coming from China and other overseas markets. That works out to almost 61 times its reported budget in worldwide gross.

4. Kantara

Rishab Shetty wrote, directed and headlined ‘Kantara’, which released in Kannada on September 30, 2022, before its dubbed versions spread the fever nationwide. Sapthami Gowda, Kishore and Achyuth Kumar co-star in the folk-action drama about sacred land, human greed, Kambala and the Bhuta Kola tradition of coastal Karnataka. Sacnilk lists its budget at Rs 16 crore, although some reports placed it as low as Rs 8 crore.

What is not in dispute is the scale of the run: Rs 309.64 crore net in India and Rs 407.82 crore worldwide on Sacnilk. Even against the higher Rs 16 crore estimate, that is more than 25 times its budget in global gross. The film began as a rooted Kannada release and ended as a pan-Indian event, with its final act turning theatres into spaces of stunned silence, cheers and repeat bookings.

5. Romancham

Seven bachelors, one Ouija board and a budget smaller than many star entourages proved to be a frighteningly good business plan. Jithu Madhavan’s Malayalam horror-comedy ‘Romancham’ released on February 3, 2023, and stars Soubin Shahir, Arjun Ashokan, Sajin Gopu and Anantharaman Ajay. Loosely inspired by events from the director’s life, it follows a group of friends whose attempt to contact a spirit turns their chaotic Bengaluru home into supernatural headquarters.

The reported budget varies from Rs 1.75 crore to Rs 3 crore. Sacnilk records Rs 38.73 crore net in India and Rs 69 crore worldwide, giving the film a global gross roughly 23 to 39 times its estimated cost.

6. Dangal

Nitesh Tiwari’s ‘Dangal’ released on December 23, 2016, and stars Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, with Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar playing the younger Geeta and Babita Phogat. Mounted on a budget Sacnilk lists at Rs 70 crore, the wrestling drama was hardly microscopic – but compared with what followed, it became one of cinema’s mightiest cost-to-gross performances.

Sacnilk gives the film Rs 387.38 crore net in India and Rs 2,070.30 crore worldwide. The staggering international total was powered by a historic later run in China, where its father-daughter story travelled far beyond the usual diaspora audience. At nearly 30 times its reported budget in worldwide gross, ‘Dangal’ won the box-office bout, demanded a rematch overseas and then won that too.

7. Sairat

Released on April 29, 2016, Nagraj Manjule’s Marathi romantic tragedy introduced Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar as Archie and Parshya, two young lovers whose relationship collides with caste and social power. Made for a reported Rs 4 crore, ‘Sairat’ had no conventional star machinery to lean on. It had instead an electrifying lead pair, Ajay-Atul’s album and an ending that left audiences emotionally flattened.

Sacnilk places its lifetime business at Rs 80.98 crore net in India and Rs 110 crore worldwide, or 27.5 times the reported budget in global gross. It became the first Marathi film to cross Rs 100 crore worldwide and expanded the commercial ceiling for its industry. The film’s success was so enormous that its remake rights travelled across languages.

8. Mahavatar Narsimha

Indian animation is often treated like the junior table at a family function. ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’ pulled up a throne. Directed by Ashwin Kumar, the mythological animated epic released theatrically on July 25, 2025. Its Hindi voice cast included Aditya Raj Sharma, Haripriya Matta and Priyanka Bhandari, and the story dramatises Prahlada’s devotion, Hiranyakashipu’s tyranny and Lord Vishnu’s Narasimha avatar.

Reports placed its budget at approximately Rs 10-15 crore. Sacnilk’s lifetime figures stand at Rs 251.30 crore net in India and Rs 326.82 crore worldwide, translating to a worldwide gross about 22 to 33 times the estimated budget. Its long run showed that audiences were willing to pay for home-grown animation when the scale, emotion and theatrical experience met them halfway – and it gave the planned Mahavatar cinematic universe a blockbuster foundation.

9. Su From So

In ‘Su From So’, a rumour that a carefree young man is possessed sends an entire coastal village into comic panic. At the box office, the only thing apparently possessed was the ticket counter. J.P. Thuminad’s Kannada horror-comedy released on July 25, 2025, and stars Shaneel Gautham, J.P. Thuminad, Sandhya Arakere, Prakash Thuminad and producer Raj B. Shetty.

Shetty clarified that production cost Rs 4.5 crore, with another Rs 1 crore spent on promotion and related expenses, bringing the reported total to about Rs 5.5 crore. Sacnilk records Rs 92.33 crore net in India and Rs 122.83 crore worldwide – more than 22 times the all-in reported cost in global gross.

10. The Kashmir Files

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ released on March 11, 2022, with Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumar, Pallavi Joshi and Chinmay Mandlekar in key roles. The drama presents a fictional narrative around the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, and its claims and political framing generated intense debate. Whatever one’s view of the film, its theatrical expansion – from roughly 630 screens at launch to thousands as demand surged – was an undeniable box-office event.

Sacnilk lists a Rs 20 crore budget, Rs 252.25 crore net in India and a Rs 341 crore worldwide gross. That is about 17 times the listed production cost in global gross, driven overwhelmingly by its domestic performance. It opened at Rs 3.55 crore and then behaved like a blockbuster that had forgotten to schedule its blockbuster opening day.

11. The Kerala Story

Sudipto Sen’s ‘The Kerala Story’ released on May 5, 2023, and stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani. Its story, marketing claims and depiction of women allegedly coerced into religious conversion and extremist recruitment triggered protests, litigation and fierce political argument. The controversy did not remain outside the cinema; it became part of the film’s extraordinary commercial story.

Sacnilk lists the production budget at Rs 15 crore and records Rs 241.74 crore net in India and Rs 302 crore worldwide – a global gross of about 20 times the listed budget. It is important to separate that commercial fact from endorsement of the film’s factual claims: the makers added disclaimers after legal scrutiny, but the audience turnout made it one of the biggest cost-to-box-office successes of its year.

12. Stree 2

When ‘Stree 2’ arrived on August 15, 2024, Sarkata did not merely terrorise Chanderi; he decapitated several box-office records. Amar Kaushik’s horror-comedy reunites Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana, with the gang facing a new headless supernatural menace. It also demonstrated the commercial power of the interconnected Maddock horror-comedy universe without making viewers study a cinematic-family tree before buying a ticket.

The budget is unusually disputed: mainstream reports placed it around Rs 50-60 crore, Bollywood Hungama later cited Rs 105 crore, and Sacnilk’s movie page lists Rs 125 crore. Using the Rs 105 crore industry estimate, Sacnilk’s Rs 597.99 crore India net and Rs 857.15 crore worldwide still represent more than eight times the cost in global gross. Whichever budget report one chooses, the word “profitable” does not require paranormal investigation.

13. Love Today

One swapped phone was all it took to turn modern romance into a trust exercise – and a modest Tamil comedy into a blockbuster. Written and directed by Pradeep Ranganathan, ‘Love Today’ released on November 4, 2022, and stars Pradeep opposite Ivana, with Sathyaraj, Radhika Sarathkumar and Yogi Babu in important roles. Its youth-friendly humour and terrifyingly relatable digital secrets did most of the marketing after release.

The film was made for a reported Rs 5 crore. Sacnilk records Rs 66.57 crore net in India and Rs 83.55 crore worldwide, a global gross nearly 17 times its budget. The numbers were especially striking because this was only Pradeep’s second directorial and his debut as a lead actor. His hero spends the film discovering how dangerous a smartphone can be; the producer discovered how useful one could be once clips, jokes and recommendations began travelling online.

14. Premalu

Sachin follows a crush to Hyderabad in ‘Premalu’; audiences across languages followed him soon afterwards. Girish A.D.’s Malayalam romantic comedy released on February 9, 2024, and stars Naslen, Mamitha Baiju, Sangeeth Prathap and Shyam Mohan. Its easy chemistry, meme-ready supporting characters and wonderfully awkward courtship helped it grow beyond Kerala through dubbed releases.

One widely repeated claim said the film cost only Rs 3 crore, but producer Dileesh Pothan later corrected that figure and placed the budget between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore. Sacnilk records Rs 75.64 crore net in India and Rs 131.50 crore worldwide, which gives the film a still-excellent 13-to-16-times gross-to-budget multiple – not the exaggerated 40-plus figure found in older reports.

15. Manjummel Boys

Chidambaram’s ‘Manjummel Boys’, released on February 22, 2024, turns a real 2006 rescue at the Guna Caves into an intensely theatrical celebration of friendship. Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Deepak Parambol, Balu Varghese and Ganapathi S. Poduval lead the ensemble. A reported Rs 20 crore budget is widely cited; a later police submission before the Kerala High Court put expenditure at Rs 18.65 crore, so the cost is best treated as an Rs 18.65-20 crore range.

Sacnilk records Rs 142.08 crore net in India and Rs 241.03 crore worldwide, or roughly 12 to 13 times that reported cost in global gross. The film became the first Malayalam title to cross Rs 200 crore worldwide, but its most remarkable feat may have been how naturally it travelled in Tamil Nadu: the use of “Kanmani Anbodu Kadhalan” turned an old cinematic memory into the emotional fuse for a new blockbuster.

Honourable Mentions

Several other films narrowly missed the main list despite delivering exceptional returns on modest investments. Hindi cinema has produced famous sleeper successes such as ‘Bheja Fry’, ‘Vicky Donor’, ‘Kahaani’ and ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, while Telugu releases ‘Hanu-Man’ and ‘Karthikeya 2’ transformed relatively controlled budgets into nationwide blockbusters. Marathi hit ‘Baipan Bhari Deva’, Tamil family drama ‘Tourist Family’ and Malayalam survival thriller ‘2018’ also travelled far beyond their expected markets. Films including ‘Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey’, ‘Premam’, ‘Drishyam’ and Kannada indie favourite ‘Lucia’ further prove that Indian cinema’s most rewarding investments do not always arrive with the biggest stars, budgets or promotional campaigns.

For ‘Hanuman Ansh’, the story is not finished: it is still running in theatres, and its overseas release is yet to begin. The number will change; the lesson probably will not. A huge opening can create a headline, but the most profitable films often begin by whispering – and then let the audience do the shouting.