Festival season is here, a golden time for the Indian box office to rake in the moolah. Dussehra-release Kantara Chapter 1 has already set the cash registers ringing, indicating better times for the Indian festive Box Office ahead.
Good news is the 21% y-o-y jump in domestic box office collections for the January-August 2025 period at Rs 8,370 crore, according to Ormax Media. People have also started heading to theatres more compared to the previous FY 24 as a 12% increase in footfall (34 million) has been recorded by PVR Inox to its theatres in Q1 FY 25.
The missing ‘K’ factor
What’s uncanny is the missing ‘Khan factor’ in the upcoming festive releases, considering the triumvirate of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan have ruled the festive box office for over two decades now. In fact they have been missing from action for the past two years, except for a combined cameo appearance in Aryan Khan’s Ba***ds of Bollywood. While Shah Rukh Khan was last seen in the blockbuster Jawan (2023), Aamir Khan appeared in the forgettable Laal Singh Chaddha (2022). The Khans would return soon, but till then, the festive BO will have to wait.
Festive releases 2025
The Diwali weekend will see the release of Ayushmann Khurrana, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Rashmika Madanna-starrer Thamma, and Harshvardhan Rane’s Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, while Alia Bhatt and Sharvari will light up the Christmas box office with Shiv Ravail’s action thriller Alpha.
How Khans dominated 24 years of festive BO
For the past two and a half decades, Khans have ruled the festive box office in India, delivering a complete entertainment package for the family audience heading to the cinema halls. With festivals like Dussehra, Diwali, and Christmas falling in the months of October, November, and December, this period is considered the crucial time for big-ticket star-studded movies. No surprise then that the biggest money churners in Indian cinema like Dangal, Pushpa 2, and Jawan feature prominently in the list of highest-grossing movies.
South cinema wave takes over the Indian box office
For the past 24 years, Khans have dominated the festive box office in India, however, new data shows this trend may be changing, courtesy the wave of south Indian movies working wonders at the box office. Ormax Media data shows the revenue share of south Indian movies has grown to 44%, overshadowing the box office collections of Hindi cinema’s 40% in 2025. This year, films like Coolie (₹ 528.00 crore), Mahavatar Narsimha (₹ 324.26 cr), Lokah: Chapter 1 Chandra – (Rs 210.50 crore), and the recently released Kantara Chapter 2 (200 crore and counting), have received audience’s love.
Biggest festive releases in the past 24 years
According to Mint, here are the biggest festive releases of the last 24 years, starting from the year 2000, that saw Mohabbatein raking in Rs 179 crore (Inflation adjusted figure) at the box office.
2000 – Mohabbatein
Director: Aditya Chopra
Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Domestic Box Office: Rs 42 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: Rs 179 crore
2001 – Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
Director: Karan Johar
Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaya Bachchan
Domestic Box Office: ₹56 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹228 crore
2003 – Kal Ho Naa Ho
Director: Nikkhil Advani
Star Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan
Domestic Box Office: ₹39 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹145 crore
2004 – Veer-Zaara
Director: Yash Chopra
Star Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji
Domestic Box Office: ₹42 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹151 crore
2006 – Dhoom 2
Director: Sanjay Gadhvi
Star Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Bipasha Basu
Domestic Box Office: ₹81 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹264 crore
2007 – Om Shanti Om
Director: Farah Khan
Star Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, Shreyas Talpade
Domestic Box Office: ₹78 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹240 crore
2008 – Ghajini
Director: A.R. Murugadoss
Star Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan
Domestic Box Office: ₹114 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹321 crore
2009 – 3 Idiots
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Star Cast: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Boman Irani
Domestic Box Office: ₹203 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹517 crore
2010 – Dabangg
Director: Abhinav Kashyap
Star Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood, Arbaaz Khan
Domestic Box Office: ₹132 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹312 crore
2013 – Dhoom 3
Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Star Cast: Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra
Domestic Box Office: ₹284 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹509 crore
2014 – PK
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Star Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Dutt
Domestic Box Office: ₹341 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹577 crore
2016 – Dangal
Director: Nitesh Tiwari
Star Cast: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra
Domestic Box Office: ₹387 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹598 crore
2018 – 2.0
Director: S. Shankar
Star Cast: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson
Domestic Box Office: ₹190 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹274 crore
2019 – War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Star Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor
Domestic Box Office: ₹318 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹437 crore
2021 – Sooryavanshi
Director: Rohit Shetty
Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Ajay Devgn, Ranveer Singh (cameo)
Domestic Box Office: ₹196 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹240 crore
2023 – Jawan
Director: Atlee
Star Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Deepika Padukone (special appearance)
Domestic Box Office: ₹644 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹702 crore
2024 – Pushpa 2: The Rule
Director: Sukumar
Star Cast: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil
Domestic Box Office: ₹830 crore
Inflation-Adjusted Box Office: ₹865 crore