India Box Office: ‘Saiyyaara' Ranks Among Global Top Scorers
The new Hindi film - Saiyyaara - had an unexpected opening day at the box office. The film features newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda and is directed by Mohit Suri. After breaking records in advance bookings, the Bollywood film managed to score a whopping $2.5 million in India alone and the opening global gross stood at $3.3 million. The Indian film scored an impressive $13.8 million worldwide in its opening weekend and became the ninth highest-grossing film worldwide.
Saiyyaara Crosses $3 million Opening Day Collection
Director Mohit Suri, known for his musical rom-coms, struck gold with his latest Bollywood release - Saiyyaara. After scoring big in advance bookings and opening day collections, the film managed to rank among top-scoring films of the week worldwide for the week ending July 20.
Irshad Kamil, Mithoon and Raj Shekhar have penned the lyrics for the film's songs which were chartbusters much before Saiyyaara hit theatres.
Soon after the advance bookings opened for Saiyyaara, the audience showed immense love for the film despite featuring newcomers. Before the release, the movie made $1 million in advance bookings sales in India alone. The film had a smashing opening at the box office, scoring nearly $3 million in India and $3.7 million worldwide.
Saiyyaara maintained the pace on Saturday - its second day at the box office. It crossed $6 million at the Indian ticket windows in two days and grossed $7.5 globally. According to producers Yash Raj Films, the film made $13.8 million worldwide and earned more than $10 million at the Indian box office by the end of the first weekend.
With that score, Saiyaara became the ninth highest-grossing film worldwide on Comscore's list this week. The list recorded $11.9 million global gross for the film. Saiyaara scored the second highest opening weekend for any film in India in 2025. Vicky Kaushal-starrer historical war drama Chhaava remains on the top. Saiyyaara is being hailed as the highest opener for any Hindi film headlined by debutants. It also marks the biggest opening ever for a Mohit Suri film. Suri has previously delivered fan favorites Ek Villain and Aashiqui 2.
Even before the release, Saiyyaara was being hailed by Mohit Suri fans as the unofficial third film in the hit romantic franchise Aashiqui. The film is not Aashiqui 3, not officially. Yet, much like the previous two films, the new one is about artists finding each other and the sacrifices they make for their selfless love.
Loosely based on the Korean film A Moment To Remember, Saiyyaara is about a troubled musician (Panday) and his connection with a shy writer (Padda). As he does his best to run away from his traumatic situation instead of dealing with it, the musician meets a simple young writer who mesmerizes him and leads him on the path of light and love. The writer has her own demons of the past to deal with, but she is more willing to do it and takes the lead. The obstacles that come in this love story and how the lovers tackle them forms the crux of Saiyaara.
Saiyyaara is evidently illogical and impractical at many times, but the film is about emotions and passion. If tragic love stories are your pick, this will be a good one. Interestingly, the film does not end on a tragic note. The climax is full of selfless love, hope and a ray of light.
Panday makes his acting debut with Saiyyaara while Padda has earlier featured in Prime Video's Big Girls Don't Cry and the film marks her Bollywood debut. The cast does a commendable job, with Panday deserving a special mention. While most of the passion and emotions in the film come from the plot itself, he lends one of the emotional scenes in the climax such honesty and craft that it transforms into a memorable one.
Saiyyaara, however, is not a flawless film. It skips almost every detail of the surrounding society - it avoids anything but personal emotions in the narrative. The focus of the love story is so limited that it fails to provide an empathetic graph to the people involved in the love story except for the lead couple. Even the parents, except for the one who provides a trauma-turned-redemption angle to the love saga, are not explored enough.
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