Ajay Devgn's Tanhaji-The Unsung Warrior Joins The List Of Bollywood's Blockbuster Historical Films!

The buzz was already there for quite a while. However, now that Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior has arrived, 2020 has begun with a bang. It has struck a chord with the audiences and thanks to the appeal of Ajay Devgn and the visual granndeur, the film has grossed approximately 118 crores within the first week. While we are sure the film would cross the 175 crore mark too with ease, it has already registered itself as one of the biggest and highest grossing historical films. Check out the list of the highest grossing historical films of all times: 

Padmaavat - 302.15 crores

 Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a penchant for telling historical tales and when there is a war involved, he ensures action and drama as well. In the modern era, Bollywood has seen its biggest success in this genre with Padmaavat entering the 300 Crore Club. A bonafide blockbuster with Bhansali's favorites Ranveer Singh & Deepika Padukone pairing up along with Shahid Kapoor.

Bajirao Mastani - 188 crores

 

Before Padmaavat, the team of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone had come together in another historical tale, Bajirao Mastani. The film went through its share of troubles both at the start of the filming and then prior to release as well. However, the filmmaker kept his chin up and defied all odds to give this one a good release. Result? Superhit!

 Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi - 92.19 crores

 

2019 saw a notable historical release in the form of Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi. Kangana Ranaut went all out to narrate the legendary tale of Jhansi Ki Rani and though there were some hassles en route production, making and release, she made it happen. The film did reasonably well though its budget warranted much higher collections. Nonetheless, a success.

Jodhaa Akbar - 62 crores

 

Another film where the maker had to go through quite some pain during the making as well as release was Jodhaa Akbar. Ashutosh Gowariker was sure of his material and had done quite some research. However, some felt that history was being tampered with. Nonetheless, audiences gave their vote of approval to this Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer.

 Rang De Basanti - 53.08 crores

 

Aamir Khan did have a good time though with Rang De Basanti with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra calling the shots as a director. This time around, the narrative was spun differently as current times and the period era were seamlessly integrated to make an entertaining affair. With half the film set in pre-independence era, this turned out to be a different kind of a historical.

 Border - 40 crores

 

One of the hugest historical tales ever coming from Bollywood is Border. Filmmaker J.P. Dutta came up with a holds-no-bar approach for his multi-starrer war drama that had astounding performances by Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty and Jackie Shroff amongst others. The blockbuster was based on the battle of Longewala during Indo-Pakistan war of 1971.

Mangal Pandey - 30 crores

Aamir Khan spent five years of his into the making of Mangal Pandey. His most ambitious project till then, it had Ketan Mehta at the helm of affairs as a director. A rather expensive film back then, it did see an excellent opening which was also a record breaker no less. However, there was a decline soon after and that was followed by a free fall. The film didn't do well.

 Mughal-e-Azam - 11 crores

 

The biggest of them all though is Mughal-e-Azam. Nothing like this has even been attempted ever again even as more than half a century has passed by since the release of this K. Asif film. In the making for over a decade, this Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala film was a massive success at the box office as it garnered almost 10 times its investment.

 Note: Collections have not been adjusted for inflation