Indian cinema had plenty to celebrate in 2025. Big-budget movies across languages were lugging the box offices and performing well enough. Hindi films found the mojo again with action romances like Saiyaara, Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat, and Tere Ishq Mein teasing the public enough. Action-heavy entertainers such as Dhurandhar and Chhaava kept the moolah rolling in, whereas Kantara Chapter One was the talk of the South film industry.
Yet, when the final numbers were tallied, none of these crowd-pullers claimed the top spot.
The film no one saw coming
The largest box office success of the year in 2025 was a small devotional drama in Gujarati, made on an extremely low budget of ₹50 lakh. Laalo Krishna Sada Sahaayate, a film without any big names, any musical numbers or action sequences either, went on to change the box office history quietly.
Also Read | From Latent to Messi: Five controversies that refused to leave headlines in 2025
The movie went on to become the highest-grossing Gujarati film ever, crossing the ₹100-crore mark, finishing its theatrical run at around ₹120 crores. It achieved this feat, thus registering an astonishing profit of nearly 24,000%, becoming the most profitable Indian movie ever.
Shattering the records that seemed unbreakable
Laalo Krishna Sada Sahaayate, in terms of profit, has recorded success beyond what legendary hits signify. The movie outperformed Secret Superstar (2017), which crossed over ₹900 crores at a budget of just ₹15 crores, and broke the record set by the devotional film Jai Santoshi Maa (earned over ₹900 crore on a ₹15 crore budget), the 1975 devotional film that famously rivalled Sholay despite its modest production cost
How big films fell short
Kantara Chapter One collected around ₹850 crores on an outlay of ₹125 crores, resulting in profits close to 680%. Dhurandhar contributed with around 760% profits, but Saiyaara emerged as the standout title from mainstream films, as it managed more than ten times its budget, resulting in 1,350% profits.
To match Laalo’s profit ratio, the amount of money Dhurandhar would have needed to earn close to ₹30,000 crore, a figure exceeding the global box office collections of Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.
Also Read | From Lokah to Feminichi Fathima: Here's top 10 Malayalam movies of 2025 across theatres and OTT
The Story behind 2025’s biggest surprise: Laalo Krishna Sada Sahaayate
Directed by Ankit Sakhiya and written by Krushansh Vaja, Vicky Poornima, and Sakhiya, the film is based on the storyline of a rickshaw driver locked inside a farmhouse where he meets his past while having visions of Lord Krishna.
Featuring Reeva Rachh, Shruhad Goswami, Karan Joshi, and Mishty Kadecha, and backed by producers Manasi Parekh, Parthiv Gohil, Manifest Films, Jay Vyas Productions, and Ajay Balvant Padariya, it received mixed reviews but picked up steam from word of mouth, becoming the surprise box office success of 2025.
