India’s most watched film Sooryavansham now has 100 crore views. The film bombed at the box office earning only 12 crores in the theatre but the film still racked up billion views and beat films like Sholay, Mughal-e-Azam and Baahubali.


From Sholay to Sooryavansham The Journey


Sholay one of the biggest hits in the history of Indian film industry had crossed over 20 crore ticket sale in various theatres in India and over millions overseas, was estimated as the most watched Indian film ever.

The advent of the cable TV, internet streaming and the YouTube views that changed the game for cinema. The viewership and the TRPS streaming minutes have unexpectedly become the most watched film.


Amitabh Bachchan’s cult film Sooryavansham as India’s most watched film. Directed by E V V Satyanarayana, the film starred Amitabh Bachchan alongside of Soundarya, Jayasudha, Rachna Banerjee , Anupam Kher and Kader Khan. 


How Sooryavansham Went from Flop


The film was released in 1999 and was a disappointment at the box office and had bombed at 12.65 crore worldwide. Over the years, the satellite on Sony Max then called the SET Max premiered the film. In 25 years since Sooryavansham has had countless re-runs on the channel. The BARC data of 2017 showed that the film’s re-run shot up to as high as 4.4 million, which means about 44 lakh households have watched the film, while the experts say the TV viewership may vary and the viewership may be higher, touching 25-30 crore.


The film is also screened on Amazon Prime Video and has the record-breaking views coming from YouTube alone. Goldmines Entertainment uploaded the film on three different channels, which had a combined viewership of 701 million. This further gave Amitabh Bachchan's starrer film an estimated 100 crore views across all platforms.