India’s most watched film was a flop, has over 100 crore views, broke all records, not Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay, Baahubali, lead actor is…

Often, when we talk about the most-watched movies, a bunch of names that top the charts are Sholay, Mughal-e-Azam, Baahubali, and more. However, what if we tell you about a film that is India’s most-watched movie, despite being a big-time flop? Yes, you read that right. For people who have scrolled through Sony Max or YouTube, the answer is clear. The film we are talking about featured Bollywood’s biggest actor, who has been contributing to Hindi cinema for the last five decades and has not even stopped doing so.

Despite being a flop, the film is considered a cult classic, and even after years of its release, you will find the movie streaming on some TV satellite channel. Let us tell you — the movie in discussion is none other than Amitabh Bachchan’s Sooryavansham.

Helmed by Satyanarayana, the film starred Bachchan alongside Soundarya, Jayasudha, Rachna Banerjee, Anupam Kher, and Kader Khan. The film was released in 1999, and while the makers had high hopes, the film turned out to be a disappointment.

Made for Rs 7 crore, the film only earned Rs 12 crore worldwide. The film was able to sell only 40 lakh tickets in India. However, Sooryavansham’s fate changed when it had its satellite premiere on Sony MAX (then called SET MAX). Over the last 25 years, the movie has streamed on the TV channel countless times.

BARC data shows that by the end of 2017, Sooryavansham re-runs were getting 4.4 million impressions. Estimates about the film’s TV viewership vary, but experts say it could be at least 25–30 crore people — or maybe even more.

The massive record-breaking views of Sooryavansham come from YouTube. The Amitabh Bachchan-starrer has been officially uploaded — in full — on the platform by Goldmines Entertainment (which holds its YouTube rights). The entertainment platform has uploaded the movie on three different channels, with a combined 701 million (70 crore) views. With this, Big B’s flop film has an estimated 100 crore views across platforms.

News