Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was released twenty five years ago today and it became the second film in history to cross the 50 crore nett mark. The film did not beat the record of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun...! which released a year earlier but a 50 crore nett total was still an insane number because barring these two films the next best total was 25 crore nett.
The film made Shahrukh Khan a big star and it was this image in the film which was to catapult him into boxoffice superstardom a few years later with films like Dil To Pagal Hai and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. A year earlier Hum Aapke Hain Kaun...! had a restricted release initially but Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was a normal release for a love story barring Bihar where it had just a one cinema release only in Patna.
The film was a Diwali release and clashed with a Rishi Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit starrer and collected 55 lakhs nett apprx on day one while Yaraana was 46 lakhs nett. More than that Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge opened to 95% while Yaarana was 70%. There was also the Dev Anand film Gangster which released on the same day.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is till today the biggest BLOCKBUSTER from the YRF banner with nearly 5 crore footfalls. The next best are Sultan, Dhoom 3 and Dil To Pagal Hai with around 3 crore. It also was the first film from YRF to score in the East as till that time all the YRF films be it their biggest HITS like Daag (1973), Kabhi Kabhie (1976) or Darr (1993) could never really perform in the Eastern circuit (West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha)
The film celebrated a silver jubilee run in around 50 theatres across the country and in Mumbai city and Delhi city the collections were pretty much similar to Hum Aapke Hain Kaun...! with 13 crore nett coming from Mumbai and 5.50 crore nett coming from Delhi city. In Overseas it created history by collected almost $5 million and this was at a time when $500k was regarded as a huge total though obviously things changed post Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
