Feb 01, 2026 9:57pm IST
With Ramayana, Dhurandhar 2, King and Battle of Galwan, Bollywood Is going for Gold in 2026
The entertainment industry worldwide is going through a significant slump. Everything -- from COVID to the rise of streaming -- has contributed to lower footfalls in theatres. Bollywood, in recent years, has seen too many box-office failures, declining production, leading to re-evaluations of budgets and star fees. The last few years have seen historical lows in ticket sales, with many big-budget films and top stars failing to draw audiences, triggering conversations about industry viability and whether the big screens will survive.
Bollywood has always taken pride in making more films than Hollywood. The industry that was always considered recession-proof has been impacted severely and there aren’t enough conversations happening around it. The number of Hindi films being made pre-COVID has reduced from 200 to 120 in 2025. “The number of films has gone down. There have been months when there is nothing to play. The production sector has also been hit hard,” says Vishek Chauhan, Chief Executive Officer at Roopbani Cinema in Bihar.
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Actors and filmmakers are no longer confident about what the audiences want to see. The audiences have rejected the biggest of directors -- Imitiaz Ali (Love Aaj Kal), Karan Malhotra (Shamshera), Rohit Shetty (Cirkus), Rajkumar Hirani (Dunki), Kabir Khan (’83, Chandu Champion), Ayan Mukerji (War 2), Sriram Raghavan (Merry Christmas), Amit Sharma (Maidaan) and Vasan Bala (Jigra). Despite featuring big names and serving mass-friendly content, few titles worked at the ticket windows. Even on OTT, names like Shoojit Sircar (Gulabo Sitabo), Anand L Rai (Atrangi Re), Ali Abbas Zafar (Bloody Daddy), Nitesh Tiwari (Bawaal) and Zoya Akhtar (The Archies) got thumbs-downs from viewers.
However, there have been spurts of hits that have given the film industry some hope. There have been mega-hits in recent times -- Gadar 2 (2023), Pathaan (2023), Animal (2023), Stree 2 (2024), Chhaava (2025) and Dhurandhar (2025), that have done roaring business, creating and shattering several records at the domestic and global box-office.
2023 jackpots
Until 2023, there was only one film in the Rs 500 crore club — Baahubali: The Conclusion (₹510.99 crore), which was inaugurated by a 2017 Telugu film with its dubbed Hindi version. However, in 2023, Bollywood’s ticket windows rang with four ₹500 crore grossers — Pathaan (₹543.09 crore), Jawan (₹640.25 crore), Gadar 2 (₹525.70 crore) and Animal (₹553.87 crore).
Highest single-day collection
In the same year, Bollywood witnessed its highest single-day collections with the cumulative business of Gadar 2 and OMG 2 on August 15 (Independence Day). While the Sunny Deol-starrer raked in ₹55.40 crore, Akshay Kumar-Pankaj Tripathi’s dramedy collected ₹17.10 crore, taking its total to ₹72.50 crore.
2024-2025: The great fall
The Hindi film industry witnessed a drastic dip in 2024 and 2025 as many tentpole movies, including Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Sarfira, Chandu Champion, Baby John, Sikandar, Son of Sardaar 2, Fighter and War 2 tanked at the box-office.
2026: A year of redemption?
2026 is lined up with biggies, which have the potential to emerge as monstrous box office blockbusters. Right from money making sequels and franchise films including Ranveer Singh and Sanjay Dutt starrer Dhurandhar Part 2, Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam 3, Shahid Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna and Kriti Sanon’s Cocktail 2, Alia Bhatt and Sharvari-starrer Alpha and magnum opuses like Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal and Alia Bhatt’s Love And War, Ranbir Kapoor and Yash’s Ramayana: Part 1, Salman Khan’s Battle of Galwan, Shah Rukh Khan’s King and Akshay Kumar’s Bhooth Bangla, 2026 promises not only to recreate the magic of 2023 for Bollywood but also emerging as the glorious year for Hindi cinema at the box-office.
Apart from these stalwarts, content-driven and mid-range films like Shahid Kapoor’s O’Romeo, Sunny Deol-starrer Gabru, Varun Dhawan’s Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, Ajay Devgn’s Dhamaal 4, Emraan Hashmi starrer Awarapan 2, Ayushmann Khurrana’s Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, Shanaya Kapoor's Tu Yaa Main and Mrunal Thakur and Siddhant Chaturvedi's Do Deewane Seher Mein can also give pleasant surprises at the ticket windows.
Introducing: ₹1000 crore club in India
Calling 2023 ‘the best year for Bollywood in the last 50 years,’ Raj Bansal, multiplex owner and film distributor from Jaipur, says 2026 can be better than 2023 because of the terrific line-up. “Ramayana can create an all-time record. According to me, the biggest film of 2026 is the Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash starrer. The film could enter the four-digit mark at the (net) box office. It could do anything,” says Bansal.
Showcasing his trust in Salman Khan’s star power, he adds, “Salman’s film does very well. Even his flop films do better than others’ hit films. So, I have always considered Salman as one of the top three actors in Hindi cinema. Battle of Galwan will do very good business, I am sure. I have a lot of hope from Love And War. Border 2 is a sequel and should do very well. If you talk about Shah Rukh Khan, during Jawan and Pathaan there was some confusion, but both did fantastic business. So, I expect King to do massive numbers.”
As per film trade analyst, Komal Nahta, 2026 can definitely be the best year for Bollywood and better than 2023, courtesy Ramayana, King and several more. “Definitely, indications are that it will be better than all the previous years,” says Nahta.
Hinting how small films like Do Deewane Seher Mein and Tu Yaa Main can turn out to be sleeper hits, he shares, “It is not as if only the big budget films and the big star cast films work. Any given year, you will see some three or four small films becoming very big at the box-office. That has always happened. Sometimes three, four, sometimes seven, eight films in a year. So, those films will never cease to surprise.” Case in point, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail, Aditya Sarpotdar’s Munjya, Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express and Aditya Jambhale’s Article 370 are classic examples of pleasant box office surprises in the past few years.
Keeping high expectations from the Ranbir Kapoor starrer epic mythological saga, Nahta says, “Ramayana, I feel, will take Indian cinema on the international map in a way no other film has done.”
Apart from Ramayana, experts have placed their bets on Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2 to become the first ₹1000 crore grosser at the domestic box office, courtesy to the phenomenal performance of its prequel. “The hype is unimaginable and unprecedented and I'm sure it's going to be a record-smasher. Well, as far as the content of the film, no one has watched the 2nd part. We'll have to wait and watch, and that will decide whether it can reach ₹1000 crore or more,” shares veteran business analyst Taran Adarsh.
Prominent exhibitor and director of Aashirwad Theatres Pvt Ltd, Akkshay Rathie, also reflected Adarsh’s prediction and said, “I think it is all the ability to be able to do the kind of numbers that are absolutely unprecedented and the kind of momentum that will hit the markets, given the absolute wave of excitement that the first one created. I have absolutely no doubt about the fact that it can be huge and can potentially go past the ₹1000 crore benchmark, depending on the content's merits.”
Small firecrackers, big light
Praising the 2026 line-up, which features Ranbir Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan’s movies, Adarsh claims, “2026 will be the biggest year ever.” Calling the box-office ‘very unpredictable,’ he opines that small and mid-range films like Tu Yaa Main and Gabru could really bring a big surprise.
More surprises than shocks in 2026
Rathie shares the line-up of 2026 looks ‘historic on paper,’ but points out that “a lot of films that you have huge expectations from, very often fail and a lot of things that you have no expectations from very often go on to surprise you.”Citing the examples of Saiyaara and Mahavatar Narsimha, the biggest surprises last year, Rathie explains how the ‘business has no predictability’ and hopes for ‘more surprises than shocks’ with the lineup for the year, including mid-range films like Tu Yaa Main and Do Deewane Seher Mein.
Note: All figures mentioned are taken from Sacnilk.com
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