The Event Movies of Indian Cinema, 2025: Dhamaka, Toofan, Tsunami

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Indian cinema’s 2025 belonged to Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar, which closed out the year as the biggest Sunami of them all in the purest sense of a genuinely contested market: in the week of December 15–21, with Dhanush’s Tere Ishk Mein still the only other tracked release standing, Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller took 98.7% of that week’s tracked India-net box office — a near-total wipeout of its own market, and the most dominant genuinely-contested week of the year. (Vicky Kaushal’s Chhaava technically posted three straight 100% weeks in March, wk10–12, but by then it was the only release we had confirmed collections for — a market-of-one, footnoted below, not a real head-to-head Tsunami.) Across the year, 34 films claimed at least one Dhamaka-or-bigger week; the market produced 27 Tsunami weeks, 20 Toofan weeks, and 4 Dhamaka weeks out of 52 — only one week (wk35, Aug 25–31, a coin-flip between Param Sundari and Lokah: Chapter 1) produced no owner at all.

Three tiers of event, Indian-market edition

The event movies of Indian cinema, 2025

Ranked by peak weekly share. India net figures are each film’s most recent tracked cumulative total on Sacnilk at time of research — several late-2025 releases (Dhurandhar, Tere Ishk Mein, and the Christmas-week clash) were still adding to their totals as this index was compiled.

The most eventful movies of Indian cinema, 2025

Peak share shows how high a film climbed in a single week; weeks-in-event shows how long it held the room. Weeks in event status, split by tier:

1. Chhaava — 6 weeks in event status (6 as a Tsunami), peak 100.0%.
2. Dhurandhar — 4 weeks in event status (3 as a Tsunami, 1 as a Toofan), peak 98.7%. Still in release as of this writing.
3. Kantara: A Legend Chapter-1 — 4 weeks in event status (3 as a Tsunami, 1 as a Dhamaka), peak 95.5%.
4. Raid 2 — 4 weeks in event status (1 as a Tsunami, 2 as a Toofan, 1 as a Dhamaka), peak 65.8%.
5. Saiyaara — 3 weeks in event status (2 as a Tsunami, 1 as a Toofan), peak 91.2%.
6. Sitaare Zameen Par — 3 weeks in event status (1 as a Tsunami, 2 as a Toofan), peak 62.8%.
7. Thamma — 3 weeks in event status (2 as a Toofan, 1 as a Dhamaka), peak 45.6%.

Chhaava owned the room longer than anyone else in 2025 — six straight weeks, all at Tsunami level (though its final three, as noted, ran against a thin tracked field). 11 of the 34 films that reached Dhamaka status did it for exactly one week — the one-week wonders, from Kingdom’s 83.6% flash-in-the-pan opening to Thug Life’s single 26.8% frame.

Week by week: the India 2025 index

₹ figures are India net, in crore. “India total” is the tracked market — the sum of India-net collections that week across the notable releases we followed, not the whole industry (see methodology note below). Two-name weeks show the runner-up’s share in red where it also cleared the Dhamaka floor.

Methodology & caveats

This is the Indian companion to the USA Times 20-year U.S. Event-Movie Index and its live 2026 U.S. edition. The India series runs the same golden-ratio math — 26.18%, 38.2%, 61.8% — against the Indian market, under Hindi tier names: Dhamaka, Toofan, Tsunami.