From a 100 to a 600! 20 Interesting facts about the 100-Crore Club

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In 2008, with Ghajini, a new index of success was discovered in India—the 100 Crore film. This was a film that netted (on ticket moneys) upwards of Rs 100 crore. The ‘Nett’ was irrespective of the cost at which distributors bought the film, and calculated after the Entertainment Tax was deducted. This was shared among exhibitors (theatre-owners), distributors (who sold a film) and producers (who made/financed) the movie, depending on independent deals.

Quite obviously, this math, in times of high-ticket rates, does not indicate whether the film was a hit (profitable) or a flop, or falls in-between. But it does show the response a film gets from its audience. For example, a RA. One had a acquisition cost (Rs.180 crore) higher than its nett earnings (Rs. 120 crore), but we must remember that it still collected that amount in (Indian) theatres.

Quite naturally, the 100-Crore Club, as it was termed later, became an index of success, like the erstwhile Silver, Golden and higher Jubilees that were about long runs in theatres.  Soon, other films crossed 200 to 500 crore and now we have a Stree 2 crossing Rs. 600 crore. Spiraling ticket prices, costs of production and finally, exaggerated figures put across by producers or distributors has now made the club look specious, though.

Many such films were disasters, not merely flops. And then we had media-hyped associated parameters like opening day collections, opening weekend, first Monday collections, weekend collections, speed at which the 100 crore or higher landmarks were reached, and so on.

Star or filmmaker egos became an integral part of the battle. Some sources predicted in advance that Jawan, a Shah Rukh Khan home production, would ‘reach’ a higher ‘lifetime’ (final) collection than his movie with Yash Raj Films, Pathaan, earlier in 2023. And it did!

More recently, a lot of hype was generated about Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 clashing on Diwali. Either or both films were trolled, their collections were speculated upon, and interested parties called one or both movies as “actually flops”. People who otherwise swore by mere 100 or 150 crore figures became ‘worldly-wise’ and said that such movies “did not recover their investments”! There was disbelief and cynicism also over the ‘official’ Rs. 600-plus collection of Stree 2, with opposite schools insisting on it being genuine or exaggerated.

And finally, nine of the 121 films that have breached the 100-crore ‘barrier’ are actually South-made films. That meant that the actual 100^th Hindi film to touch 100 was Drishyam 2 (2022), the 107^th film, as seven of these nine films had been released before it!

Let us look at 20 interesting features of the 16 year-old Club.

1. The Kerala Story and Munjya are the only totally star-less films in this list. Among the other ‘surprise’ entrants with seeming lack of face-value are The Kashmir Files, Grand Masti and URI—The Surgical Strike.
2. 3 Idiots (2009), chronologically the second film in this list, was also the first to reach the next magic figure of Rs. 200 crore, and for what it is worth, the last Hindi film to complete 50 weeks run in the theatres.
3. Aamir Khan has the distinction of being the actor common to the first 100 crore (Ghajini), 200 (3 Idiots), 250 (Dhoom: 3), 300 (PK) and 350 (Dangal)-crore movies. His only other film here, Thugs of Hindostan, an acknowledged disaster in 2018, was the first to open with a Rs. 50 crore on Day 1.
4. Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar lead the heroes’ list. Salman has 21 films here, including four in cameos or special appearances. Akshay Kumar has 15 films as hero and four more cameos.
5. Deepika Padukone’s last eight theatrical releases in the lead (from Bajirao Mastani in 2015 to Singham Again in 2024) have all reached that coveted figure. Her total is 12 movies. Katrina Kaif had 9 films and two more cameos. Kareena Kapoor Khan follows with 10 films, of which 8 were in the lead.

   

6. Rohit Shetty leads among directors, with 10 of the 112 originally Hindi films! Bhushan Kumar of T-Series heads the producers with 13 films. Dharma Productions and Karan Johar are involved in 11 productions, of which Karan also directed two (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani).
7. Rajkumar Hirani had all his four films released in this period featured (3 Idiots, PK, Sanju, Dunkee).
8. From the South, S.S. Rajamouli leads with three films (The Bahubali franchise and RRR) as director. M.M. Kreem takes the lead among South composers with three complete films (Ravi Basrur has four, but only two are solo), and among actors it is Prabhas with five films.
9. Pritam leads the composers with 18 films, of which most were solo. His songs were also re-created in Sooryavanshi and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, thus giving him a total of 20 films here!
10. Re-creations of Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Baaghi 2, Housefull 4, Total Dhamaal), Viju Shah (Simmba, Sooryavanshi), Rajesh Roshan (Kaabil, Total Dhamaal), Bappi Lahiri (Golmaal 3, Badrinath Ki Dulhania), Anu Malik (Golmaal Again, Judwaa 2), Usha Khanna (Sooryavanshi) and Kalyanji-Anandji (Raees) were also heard.
11. Yash Chopra was the oldest producer and director here, followed by three directors from the 1980s—Anil Sharma, Rakesh Roshan and David Dhawan.
12. Dharmendra (Rocky Aur Rani…) was the oldest actor and Tanuja (Son of Sardar) the corresponding actress.
13. Many films had cameos by lead actors, including in songs. The latter list includes Bodyguard, Agneepath, Bol Bachchan, Dabangg 2, Baaghi 2, Total Dhamaal, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Simmba, Saaho, Goliyon Ki RasLeela RamLeela, Pushpa, Saaho and Stree 2!

    

14. South debut directors abounded, either in Hindi cinema, like R. Murugadoss (Ghajini), Siddique (Bodyguard) and Sandeep Vanga Reddy (Kabir Singh) in Hindi films, or in South films like S.S. Rajamouli (Bahubali—The Beginning), Prashant Neel (KGF2), Sujeeth (Saaho), Sukumar (Pushpa…), Atlee (Jawan) and Nag Ashwin (Kalki…).
15. Mumbai directors included Abhinav Singh Kashyap and Arbaaz Khan in the first two Dabangg films, Farhad-Sajid in Housefull 3, Aditya Dhar (URI—The Surgical Strike), Amar Kaushik (Stree), Om Raut (Tanhaji—The Unsung Warrior), Abhishek Varman (2 States), Karan Malhotra (Agneepath), Sajid Nadiadwala (Kick), Raaj Shandilyaa (Dream Girl), Raj Mehta (Good Newwz), Jagan Shakti (Mission Mangal), Sudipto Sen (The Kerala Story) and Aditya Sarpotdar (Munjya). Of these, those in Bold also had more films here.
16. No major Hindi star debuted in these films!
17. These films spawn all three Hindi Film Universes until now—Dinesh Vijan’s Horror Comedy Universe (Stree), the Yash Raj Films Spy Universe (Ek Tha Tiger) and the Rohit Shetty Cop Universe (Singham).

    

18. Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone (Chennai Express, Happy New Year, Pathaan, Jawan), Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif (Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, Tiger 3, Bharat) and Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone (Goliyon Ki RasLeela—RamLeela, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat, 83) were the most repeated. Salman-Sonakshi Sinha (the Dabangg franchise) followed. The most repeated director-star combination is of Rohit Shetty with Ajay Devgn in 8 films, six of which were in the lead.
19. While Stree 2 is the sole 600 crore film, Bahubali 2—The Conclusion was followed by Pathaan, Gadar 2, Jawan and Animal in the 500 crore bracket, while KGF2 crossed 400 crore. 8 more movies have slalomed past Rs 300 crore. 25 more films have made upwards of Rs. 200 crore.
20. Very interestingly, the foreign films Avatar: The Way of Water and Avengers: End-Game also crossed 100 crore in India in Hindi versions!