Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana is the big Diwali release this year.
Indian filmmakers have always fought to make the most of this festive window.
Ramayana has a second part due in Diwali 2028.
From Sooryavanshi To Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3: How Indian Cinema Conquered Diwali Box Office
Ranbir Kapoor's Diwali release of Ramayana is preceded by a long variety of major Indian outings that aim to seize on the festive season
Summary
Summary
Over the past half-decade, the Diwali box office has fortified itself as Indian cinema's most lucrative, high-stakes battleground. Spanning 2022 to 2026, the festive window has flung from regional dominance into an all-out, pan-Indian theatrical event, catalysed by high-budget franchise extensions, multi-starrer clashes, and daring genre shifts.
The tracker documents a pivotal period of recovery, disruption, and unprecedented scale. The sequence began with 2022's cautious, misfiring post-pandemic offerings like Ram Setu, before exploding in 2023 with Salman Khan’s spy tentpole Tiger 3 alongside Tamil cinema’s acclaimed sly meta trick, Jigarthanda DoubleX. By 2024, Diwali clashes raged up to a fever pitch as Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again locked horns in a heated Hindi box office collision, spawning over ₹800 crore globally combined, while Sivakarthikeyan’s biographical drama Amaran blazed over the Southern circuits.
In 2025, Maddock Films expanded its supernatural dominance with Ayushmann Khurrana's Thamma, threading alongside Mari Selvaraj’s punchy sports drama Bison: Kaalamaadan. Culminating in 2026 with Nitesh Tiwari’s monumental mythological spectacle Ramayana: Part 1, this five-year retrospective captures how India's biggest filmmakers leverage the festive season to shatter records, redefine theatrical distribution and raise the stakes.
Release Date: November 1, 2024
Worldwide Gross: ₹400.35 Crore (India Net: ₹260.11 Cr)
Anees Bazmee returned to direct the third entry in the hit horror-comedy franchise. Set against the backdrop of Kolkata and an ancient royal palace in West Bengal, the film follows Ruhaan Randhawa (Rooh Baba), a fake exorcist (Kartik Aaryan) who gets embroiled in a real royal curse. The narrative elevates the stakes by introducing two rival spirits/matriarchs played by Vidya Balan (reprising her iconic role connection as Manjulika) and Madhuri Dixit. Strewn with slapstick humor, lavish dance face-offs like "Ami Je Tomar 3.0", and a climax filled with unexpected twists and a bold subversion, the film captured family audiences and emerged as a runaway blockbuster hit despite sharing screens with Singham Again.
Release Date: November 1, 2024
Worldwide Gross: ₹372.41 crore (India Net: ₹247.86 cr)
Rohit Shetty's mega-budget fifth entry in his "Cop Universe" adapts elements from the ancient epic Ramayana into a modern high-octane action setup. Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) steers a cross-border mission to rescue his wife Avni (Kareena Kapoor) after she is abducted by a villain named Danger Lanka (Arjun Kapoor). To orchestrate the rescue, Singham mobilizes his entire squad of super-cops, featuring Simmba (Ranveer Singh), Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar), and new additions Shakti Shetty (Deepika Padukone) and Satya (Tiger Shroff). Crowded with explosions, flying cars, and heavy star cameos, the spectacle spawned massive opening numbers but weathered stiff competition from Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.
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Release Date: November 12, 2023
Worldwide Gross: ₹466.63 crore (India Net: ₹276.62 crore)
The fifth installment of the YRF Spy Universe sees Avinash Singh Rathore (Tiger) framed as a traitor alongside his wife Zoya. A vengeful ex-ISI agent, Aatish Rehman (Emraan Hashmi), thrusts Tiger (Salma Khan) and Zoya (Katrina Kaif) into a deadly trap threatening both India and Pakistan's political stability. Steered by Maneesh Sharma, the thriller relies heavily on globe-trotting action set pieces, including a thrilling prison escape sequence featuring Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan and a post-credits tease with Hrithik Roshan’s Kabir.
Release Date: October 17, 2025
Worldwide Gross: ₹75 crore
Propelled by Dhruv Vikram's breakout performance, this biographical social sports drama based on the real-life journey of kabaddi player Manathi Ganesan is daring and incisive. Set against rural Tamil Nadu, it circles a fierce young athlete defying systemic caste discrimination, systemic violence, and heavy odds to represent the nation.
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Release Date: October 21, 2025
Worldwide Gross: ₹169.75 crore
Starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna, the fifth installment in Maddock Films' expanding horror-comedy universe (shifting toward a supernatural romance tone). The plot trails a journalist who encounters a mysterious woman, turns into a vampiric Betal figure, and fights an ancient bloodthirsty sect to rescue humanity.
Release Date: November 10, 2023
Worldwide Gross: ₹64 crore
Directed by Karthik Subbaraj and starring Raghava Lawrence and S.J. Suryah, this terrifically cheeky period action-dramedy set in the 1970s follows an aspiring filmmaker and a ruthless gangster pairing to make a Western film in Tamil Nadu.
Release Date: October 25, 2022
Worldwide Gross: ₹92 crore
Directed by Abhishek Sharma, this action-adventure movie stars Akshay Kumar as an atheist archeologist turned believer who races against time to scientifically prove the existence of the legendary Ram Setu bridge before sinister forces destroy it. The film was heavily panned and tanked at the box office.
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Release Date: November 5, 2021
Worldwide Gross: ₹295 crore (India Net: ₹195 crore)
Directed by Rohit Shetty, Sooryavanshi, the fourth installment in the iconic Cop Universe, stars Akshay Kumar as Mumbai ATS chief DCP Veer Sooryavanshi on a high-stakes mission to scour and find 200 kg of hidden RDX and dismantle a lethal terrorist sleeper cell network, featuring an explosive third-act team-up with Ajay Devgn’s Singham and Ranveer Singh’s Simmba, co-starring Katrina Kaif and Jaaved Jaaferi, produced by Dharma Productions, Reliance Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, and Cape of Good Films. It is remembered as historic post-pandemic theatrical savior that emerged the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2021.
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