A record-breaking Bollywood hit is now climbing a major streaming chart. Bollywood is a term widely used to refer to Hindi-language movies from India, though Indian cinema also includes a number of film markets in different languages including Telugu, Tamil, and Marathi. Over the decades, Bollywood has produced many classics such as the 1997 romance Dil To Pagal Hai and the 1977 action movie Amar Akbar Anthony, also inspiring a number of English-language movies, including Bride & Prejudice and Slumdog Millionaire.
In recent years, a number of record-breaking Hindi movies have made their way into theaters. In fact, of the current Top 10 highest-grossing Bollywood тιтles of all time, six of them were released in 2023 or later. That roster includes 2023’s Jawan and Pathaan, both of which feature global superstar Shah Rukh Khan, as well as the 2024 horror-comedy Stree 2, the 2023 period drama Gadar 2, the 2023 action drama Animal, and a 2025 movie that has now found new life on streaming.
Chhaava Is Performing Well On Netflix
The Movie Debuted On The Streamer Months After Arriving In Theaters
Chhaava has become a Netflix success, having joined the streamer two months after kicking off its record-breaking theatrical run. The 2025 movie stars Vicky Kaushal (who was recently seen in the 2023 Shah Rukh Khan movie Dunki) as the real-life historical figure Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, loosely adapting his participation in the Maratha-Mughal conflict in the late 17th century. The movie broke box office records, eventually earning roughly ₹793.82 crore ($93 million) to become the eighth highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time and the 13th highest-grossing Indian movie in general.
Chhaava broke a variety of other records, including becoming director and co-writer Laxman Utekar’s highest-grossing movie by the end of its opening weekend.
Netflix has now calculated their global Top 10 chart for the most-watched non-English movies for the week of April 7 through 13. Chhaava has landed at No. 4 on the chart, behind TEST (No. 3), Promised Hearts (No. 2), and The Dad Quest (No. 1), with 2.2 million viewers amᴀssing a total of 5.9 million viewing hours. In addition to being No. 1 in India, it was in the Top 10 in nine other territories across Asia and Africa, including Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
What This Means For Chhaava
It Could Help The Movie Find A New Audience
Although some Netflix Hindi movies can find broad audiences in English-speaking territories, that has not yet been the case for Chhaava. However, this may be because the Bollywood тιтle did not have a substantial theatrical release in North America. In fact, roughly 88% of its record-breaking gross came from its release in its home territory, with international markets providing substantially less. This means it never built a foundation elsewhere, though its newfound streaming success may draw attention from those markets and help it become an even bigger streaming hit than it was a theatrical hit.
Source: Netflix
