Kalki, Stree 2, Maharaja among most popular Indian films of 2024: IMDb

Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD is the most popular movie of 2024. Amar Kaushik’s Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank, Chidambaram S. Poduval’s Manjummel Boys, and Kiran Rao’s Laapata Ladies also make it to a somewhat eclectic top-ten list from IMDb (Internet Movie Database). Its ranking of most popular web series too has a similar mix, with Heermandi-The Diamond Bazaar (Netflix) at number one. Mirzapur, Panchayat 3 (Amazon Prime Video), and Taaza Khabar (Disney+Hotstar) are among the others. 

The audience for Indian cinema is completely pan-Indian, smaller films are now having to find their audience in the theatre before coming online, and star-led series are doing well. Those among others are the findings from IMDb’s ranking of the top-ten films and series for 2024. 

 

Of all the movies and series released in India between January 1 and November 25, 2024, that have an average IMDb user rating of 5 or higher, the 10 titles that were consistently the most popular going by page views from over 250 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide, are part of the list. 

This begs the question, what about movies released after November 25. The current rage, Sukumar’s Pushpa 2-The Rule is an obvious miss. Yaminie Patodia, head of IMDb India says: “There are other ways customers can learn about what is trending year-round. The IMDb mobile apps have a widget where weekly Indian movie rankings are available every Monday. There is the dynamic IMDb top-250 highest-rated Indian movies list. 12th Fail did not make it to our 2023 year-end list since it released in the end of October last year. But as more fans discovered the movie, customer interest propelled it to the current top-250 list of both Indian and global films.” 

 

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail ranks number 61 on a global list that includes The Shawshank Redemption, Godfather, and Lord of the Rings. 

In many ways, the Amazon-owned IMDb’s list of both popular stars (released last week) and this one reflect the larger reality of India’s Rs 19,700 crore films and Rs 31,000 crore streaming business. “In the last two years, we have witnessed a rise in movies that transcend language barriers. Productions featuring casts from multiple Indian film industries are trending,” says Patodia. In 2022, RRR was number one, in 2023 it was Jawan, and this year brings Kalki 2898 AD. 

The pandemic-fuelled surge in direct-to-streaming releases led IMDb to split the Most Popular Indian Movies list by theatrical and streaming. “However, this year, barring a few, we haven’t seen a lot of direct-to-streaming movies capture customer interest on IMDb. This may be indicative of a larger trend where even smaller movies, that were considered right for a streaming release, are looking to find their audience in theatres first,” says she. 

As streaming matures and platforms experiment with programming, one thing stands out, says Patodia, “Star-powered web series are on the rise”. Raj and DK’s Farzi, starring Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupati, was the most popular Indian web series in 2023 while this year, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's multi-starrer Heeramandi is number one.