Nithilan Swaminathan’s Tamil action thriller Maharaja, starring Vijay Sethupathi, released in Chinese cinemas in November last year. In little above a month, it has become the highest-grossing Indian film in China since 2018, following Advait Chandan’s Bollywood coming-of-age musical Secret Supertsar, headlined by Zaira Wasim. (Also Read – HT Rewind 2024: How content beat superstardom in Tamil cinema with Amaran, Maharaja and Meiyazhagan’s stellar runs)

Maharaja performs exceedingly well in China

Yu Jing, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India, took to her X handle on Sunday and shared a major update on the box office performance of Maharaja in China. She shared a poster of the film, featuring the cast, and wrote in the caption, “Maharaja has become the highest-grossing Indian film in China since 2018, reaching ₹91.55 crore. Well done (thumbs up emojis).”

Maharaja became the first Indian film to be released in China after the October 2024 accord to normalise ties between the two countries ending the standoff in eastern Ladakh.

According to cinema ticket sales portal Maoyan, the Vijay Sethupathi-starrer collected around RMB 13.37 million ( ₹15.6 crore) at the box office in China on the opening day in November 2024.

Ahead of its release, the film scored a high rating of 8.7/10 on Chinese movie review site Douban and is regarded as “one of the highest-rated Indian films in recent years.”

Directed by Nithilan Swaminathan, Maharaja also stars Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas and Natty Natraj. The film follows Maharaja (Sethupathi), a barber in Chennai, who goes to the police station to retrieve his stolen dustbin only for the police officers to find his intentions to be something else.

Indian films in China

Maharaja opened to a great response when it hit Indian screens on June 14, earning over ₹100 crore at home. It is the first Indian film to be screened in China after both countries agreed to patrol and disengage troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, a major breakthrough that ended the over four-year border standoff.

Indian films 3 Idiots, Dangal, and Secret Superstar, all starring Aamir Khan, were some of the major box office successes in China in recent years. China has about 86,000 theatres all over the country, the highest in the world.