Dhurandhar - The Revenge arrives this week and all eyes are on how entertaining the film turns out to be and how much money it makes at the box office. A look at the Top 10 biggies in the Hindi spy film genre.
Key Points
- From Pathaan to Dhurandhar, spy films are some of Bollywood's biggest earners.
- Alongside high-octane entertainers, content-driven films like Raazi and Madras Cafe show that grounded, realistic spy stories can also find strong audience acceptance.
Dhurandhar
Box office collection: Rs 895 crores (Rs 8.95 billion)
Aditya Dhar changed the show grammar of how a spy movie operates.
There were attempts to create something different by espionage films like Romeo Akbar Walter, Mission Majnu and Khufiya. However, that was on a much smaller scale.
When it came to going all out, Dhurandhar took the risk. It paid off and how. The Ranveer Singh starrer fell a little short of the Rs 900 crores (Rs 9 billion) mark.
Pathaan
Box office collection: Rs 543 crores (Rs 5.43 billion)
The film that set the stage for the 500 Crore Club in Bollywood was Pathaan.
Though Yash Raj Films' Tiger series and War were huge, Pathaan went full throttle and didn't just expand the spy universe but also emerged as Shah Rukh Khan's huge comeback movie.
The film took a massive start of Rs 57 crores (Rs 570 million) and then collected almost 10 times of that in its theatrical run.
Tiger Zinda Hai
Box office collection: Rs 339 crores (Rs 3.39 billion)
Tiger Zinda Hai was a worthy sequel to Ek Tha Tiger and upped the scale, size and intensity.
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif returned in Ali Abbas Zafar's entertainer and broke the 300 crores barrier.
War
Box office collection: Rs 318 crores (Rs 3.18 billion)
Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff came together as the newest characters in the YRF spy universe as they played hero and villain respectively in War.
The last film prior to the pandemic that did exceedingly well at the box office, War was the right stepping stone in the expansion plans for YRF's spy franchise after a very successful Dhoom series.
Tiger 3
Box office collection: Rs 286 crores (Rs 2.86 billion)
Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif reunited for the third time in YRF's Tiger 3.
Even though it just fell short of the 300 crores mark, the end results were overall good.
Ek Tha Tiger
Box office collection: Rs 199 crores (Rs 1.99 billion)
The film that started it all was Ek Tha Tiger.
Audiences hadn't seen anything like that and YRF along with Director Kabir Khan created a different world for this first in the universe film.
A few years earlier, Saif Ali Khan had attempted this with Agent Vinod, but then Ek Tha Tiger got it mostly right.
War 2
Box office collection: Rs 185.13 crores (Rs 1.85 billion)
The only flop in the YRF spy universe series, War 2 just didn't have anything going in its favour.
Hrithik Roshan and NTR as warring partners were rejected by audiences and the film couldn't even cross the 200 crores barrier.
Raazi
Box office collection: Rs 124 crores (Rs 1.24 billion)
An authentic spy affair that was more offbeat and niche than hardcore commercial, Raazi was a small film that became big.
The Alia Bhatt led film could well have been pitched as a 50-60 crores earner but then audiences fancied the film and made this Meghna Gulzar film a much bigger hit.
Baby
Box office collection: Rs 96 crores (Rs 960 million)
One still wonders why Baby hasn't been carried forward as a franchise, considering the kind of cult status that it has enjoyed over the years.
Akshay Kumar excelled in this action thriller directed by Neeraj Pandey that coupled style with substance and even though it fell a little short of the 100 crores mark, it enjoys huge popularity till date.
There was a spin-off in the form of Naam Shabana, which did just fair business.
Madras Cafe
Box office collection: Rs 43 crores (Rs 430 million)
Shoojit Sircar made a good film based on Rajiv GandhI's assassination which made for a gripping big screen watch.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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