As 2025 comes to a close, Bollywood Hungama spoke to trade experts to get a sense of how the year was for Bollywood. Trade was disappointed with the overall box office performance in 2024; was 2025 better for the Hindi film industry?
Sikandar & War 2 rejected, but these 5 made 2025 ROAR: Trade hails the FANTASTIC FIVE who got the numbers – Vicky Kaushal, Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Ahaan Panday, Aneet Padda
Trade veteran Taran Adarsh said, “You can’t compare because both the years had different kinds of films and genres working and different kinds of business happening. Having said that, it was a triumph of content this year. The content did the talking in 2025, not the stars. There were two big, star-studded films that failed at the box office – one was Sikandar and the other was War 2. The star power did attract the audience on day 1. But eventually, it was the content that did the talking. There was outright rejection of these films. The audience didn’t give it a chance for a few days. Today, the audience can be very ruthless, even for star cast films.”
He added, “If you look at the films that delivered those numbers, be it Chhaava, Saiyaara or Dhurandhar, they were completely out of syllabus. Hence, this year was both a surprise and a shocker to me.”
Trade analyst Atul Mohan remarked, “In all the successful films, it was the music that worked big time. Saiyaara is the biggest example. Tere Ishk Mein’s title song was a chartbuster. Dhurandhar’s music was hatke, especially the Akshaye Khanna dance song. People don’t know the lyrics and yet, it has become a rage. Every second Reel is about that song or Akshaye Khanna.”
Speaking about 2025, he said, “It was an above-average year. 2-3 films excelled big time at the box office, but that is not enough. You enjoy doing business when you invest a certain amount of money and you make a 60-70% profit on it. However, the silver lining was that the South didn’t overpower Bollywood. Only 2 Kannada films worked big time – Mahavatar Narsimha and Kantara: A Legend Chapter – 1. The Telugu films didn’t work as intended this year. Nevertheless, we can do better if we get serious about our business. Let’s not chase quantity, let’s chase quality. Make 3 films and not 6. But make sure those 3 films are something to watch out for. Moreover, we need to control star prices.”
Distributor and exhibitor Raj Bansal opined, “2025 was better than 2024 for sure. There was only Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, which earned more than Rs. 300 crores. However, we were also disappointed with 2024 because we saw huge collections in 2023. That was the year when 4 films collected Rs. 500 crores (Pathaan, Gadar 2, Animal and Jawan). 2025 opened with Chhaava. Then, business was low for 6 months and it was finally revived by Saiyaara. Now the year has ended with Dhurandhar, the biggest Hindi grosser.”
Girish Johar, producer and eminent film business analyst, said, “The year was just about okay. There was nominal growth of around 10% vis-à-vis last year. It was nothing extraordinary. The good part was that a few films did extraordinary business, more than expected. But many films also fell like nine pins. We are in a K-shaped model right now. Films that do well shoot up. And films that don’t do well, they crash on day 1 itself.”
While others spoke about big grossers, Girish Johar chose to highlight two significant films of the year, “Two films stood out for me in 2025 – Metro…In Dino excelled due to its music and performances. The way the story unfolded was very layered. Secondly, Phule had no backing or major stars. But it was talked about. It was a rare film of 2025 that completed 50 days.”
The Fantastic Five
Trade experts stated that the five actors who became talked about due to the blockbuster success of their films and their marvellous performances were Vicky Kaushal in Chhaava, Ranveer Singh in Dhurandhar, Akshaye Khanna in Chhaava and Dhurandhar and Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda in Saiyaara.
Taran Adarsh explained, “Akshaye Khanna in both Chhaava and Dhurandhar was incredible. I had always felt that Akshaye Khanna is one of the finest actors that we have, not just in Bollywood but in Indian cinema. Ranveer Singh was written off, but he got his due finally. I may not agree with the kind of stuff he did in the past like wearing loud clothes. But one can’t deny that he’s a very talented actor; look at his body of work. He should seriously continue doing the kind of roles that he’s doing as the competition is very tough right now. Earlier, it was only Bollywood stars, but now, even the Pan-India stars are delivering big numbers.”
He added, “Both Ahaan and Aneet were so lovable and so fantastic. I couldn’t believe that it was their first film. As for Vicky, uske baare mein kya kahein? I remember speaking to him after I saw Chhaava. I was speechless due to the shocking ending. I told him that it was his best performance.”
Girish Johar agreed with this list and also added, “Harshvardhan Rane had two successes – Sanam Teri Kasam’s re-release and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat. R Madhavan also scored. Along with these actors, I’d also like to give a similar status to the content as well. The stars are there, but the star power is diminishing. Meanwhile, the power of content is increasing, and that adds value to the big grossers.”
More Pages: Dhurandhar Box Office Collection , Dhurandhar Movie Review
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