From challenging powerful Magic Knights to fighting terrifying enemies with his Anti-Magic swords, Asta delivers some truly unforgettable moments throughout the series. So, let’s look at the top 10 Asta moments in Black Clover that prove why this magicless boy deserves a shot at becoming the Wizard King.

1. Asta Refuses to Surrender His Dream to Yami

One of the earliest defining moments in Asta’s journey comes when he encounters Yami Sukehiro, the captain of the Black Bulls. At this point, Asta is still an inexperienced Magic Knight who has barely begun to understand the strange power hidden inside his five-leaf grimoire.

Yami is nothing like the traditional image of a noble captain. He is intimidating, unpredictable, and exceptionally powerful. His Dark Magic makes him a terrifying opponent, even for experienced Magic Knights.

During their early interactions, Yami challenges Asta’s determination and tests whether the young boy has what it takes to survive among the Black Bulls. Asta’s lack of magic makes him an unusual candidate for the squad, but his physical strength and refusal to back down catch Yami’s attention.

The important part of this moment is Asta’s unwavering declaration that he will become the Wizard King, despite having no magic whatsoever. He refuses to let his circumstances dictate his future.

Yami’s overwhelming presence highlights the enormous difference between an experienced captain and a newcomer like Asta. Yet Asta never abandons his ambition simply because someone stronger stands before him.

This encounter establishes the foundation of their relationship. Yami recognizes that Asta possesses something that cannot easily be taught: an extraordinary ability to keep moving forward when everyone else would give up.

Why this moment matters: Asta’s determination is the foundation of his character. Before his Anti-Magic becomes a decisive weapon, his greatest strength is his belief that hard work can challenge even the most deeply rooted expectations.

2. Asta Impresses the Magic Knight Captains During the Entrance Exam

The Magic Knights Entrance Exam is one of the most important turning points in Asta’s life. For years, he has trained relentlessly to compensate for his complete lack of magic. Now, he finally gets the opportunity to prove himself before the strongest Magic Knights in the Clover Kingdom.

Unfortunately, the examination immediately exposes his greatest disadvantage. Most candidates demonstrate impressive magical abilities, while Asta struggles to perform the conventional magic-based feats expected of aspiring Magic Knights.

However, Asta refuses to let embarrassment or rejection stop him.

When he gets the opportunity to demonstrate his physical abilities and swordsmanship, he reveals just how much effort he has invested in his training. His strength, speed, and fearless attitude make him stand out in an environment where magical talent usually determines a candidate’s value.

Although not every captain is impressed, Yami sees something different in Asta. Instead of focusing exclusively on his lack of magic, he recognizes the young man’s potential and recruits him into the Black Bulls.

This decision changes Asta’s life forever.

The entrance exam is especially memorable because Asta does not suddenly become the most powerful candidate. Instead, he earns his place by demonstrating that he is willing to fight despite being at a disadvantage.

His determination becomes the reason he receives an opportunity that many people would have considered impossible.

Why this moment matters: Asta proves that he does not need to fit the traditional definition of a Magic Knight to deserve a place among them. His selection by Yami begins the journey that will eventually transform the Black Bulls and the entire kingdom.

3. Asta Battles the Diamond Kingdom’s Warriors in Search of Treasure

Asta’s encounters with the Diamond Kingdom demonstrate how quickly his abilities begin developing after joining the Black Bulls.

The Diamond Kingdom is a major rival of the Clover Kingdom, known for its powerful warriors and experiments designed to enhance magical abilities. Its fighters frequently possess specialized combat skills that make them dangerous opponents.

During the mission involving the dungeon and its hidden treasures, Asta encounters formidable enemies, including Mars, a Diamond Kingdom warrior whose combined magical abilities make him an exceptionally difficult opponent.

Asta’s battle against Mars is particularly significant because it forces him to confront someone who appears superior in several conventional aspects of combat. Mars possesses powerful offensive and defensive magic, while Asta must rely on his physical conditioning, swordsmanship, and unusual ability to cancel magic.

The fight becomes a test of endurance and adaptability. Asta cannot simply overpower every enemy through brute strength. He must learn how to recognize attacks, exploit openings, and use Anti-Magic effectively.

His willingness to continue fighting even when injured demonstrates how much he has grown since the entrance exam.

The dungeon adventure also expands the world of Black Clover. Asta discovers that the challenges facing the Clover Kingdom extend beyond individual Magic Knights and involve rival nations competing for power and valuable magical artifacts.

Why this moment matters: Asta begins transitioning from a determined rookie into a genuine combatant capable of facing dangerous opponents. His battles against the Diamond Kingdom show that his lack of magic does not prevent him from competing with gifted warriors.

Also Read: How Anime Turns Manga Into Global Hits

4. Asta Brings Solid Silva to His Knees at a Royal Party

Asta’s confrontation with Solid Silva is a satisfying example of how Black Clover challenges its own social hierarchy.

Solid belongs to the prestigious Silva royal family and has spent much of his life enjoying the privileges associated with his status. Like many members of the nobility, he looks down on people he considers inferior.

Asta, a commoner born without magic, represents everything Solid believes should be powerless and insignificant.

Their conflict becomes especially personal because Solid has a history of humiliating his younger sister, Noelle Silva, whose difficulty controlling her magic makes her a target for ridicule.

When Asta confronts Solid in the royal setting associated with the Wizard King, he refuses to remain silent in the face of the noble’s arrogance. Instead of being intimidated by Solid’s position, Asta challenges him and demonstrates that noble blood does not automatically make someone superior.

The encounter is memorable because Asta’s courage exposes the weakness behind Solid’s pride. Solid might possess a prestigious name and powerful water-based magic, but Asta refuses to let those advantages determine the outcome of their confrontation.

More importantly, Asta’s actions reflect his growing friendship with Noelle. He recognizes that she deserves respect, regardless of her family’s expectations or her struggles with magic.

This is not simply about defeating an arrogant opponent. It is about standing up for someone who has been mistreated.

Why this moment matters: Asta challenges the class divisions that define the Clover Kingdom. His willingness to confront a royal shows that his dream of becoming Wizard King is about more than personal recognition; it is also about changing how people are treated.

5. Asta and Yuno Save Hage Village and Sister Lily During the Elf Crisis

Asta’s connection to Hage Village and Sister Lily is one of the most important emotional elements of his story.

Hage is the place where Asta and Yuno grow up together as orphans. Sister Lily helps care for them, while the local church becomes their home and the foundation of their childhood.

For Asta, protecting these people is deeply personal. His dream of becoming the Wizard King is not just about proving his worth to strangers. It is also about ensuring that the people who raised him can live without fear.

During the Elf Reincarnation storyline, the Clover Kingdom faces an enormous crisis as members of the elf race return and launch attacks against humans. The conflict threatens communities across the kingdom, including the places connected to Asta’s childhood.

Asta and Yuno’s partnership becomes especially meaningful during this period. Although they have different personalities and fighting styles, both share the same determination to protect their home and the people they love.

Asta brings his Anti-Magic and close-combat abilities, while Yuno uses his exceptional Wind Magic and extraordinary combat instincts. Together, they demonstrate why their rivalry has always pushed them to become stronger.

Their efforts to protect their home and its people reflect the promise they made as children: that one of them would eventually become the Wizard King.

The Elf Reincarnation arc also forces Asta to confront a much larger conflict involving historical injustice, hatred, and the consequences of past actions.

Why this moment matters: Asta’s strength is most meaningful when he uses it to protect others. His connection to Hage Village reminds viewers that beneath his ambition lies a deep commitment to the people who gave him a home.

6. Asta Uses His Anti-Magic Sword Against Patry

The conflict involving Patry is one of the most important demonstrations of Asta’s unique abilities.

Patry, a powerful elf who leads the Eye of the Midnight Sun, possesses extraordinary magical power and becomes one of the central figures in the Elf Reincarnation conflict. His anger toward humanity is rooted in the tragedy that befell the elves centuries earlier.

Unlike many of Asta’s earlier opponents, Patry is not simply an arrogant enemy seeking personal glory. He is driven by grief, resentment, and a distorted understanding of justice.

Asta’s Anti-Magic makes him uniquely suited to challenge opponents who rely heavily on magical attacks. His swords can neutralize magic, allowing him to disrupt techniques that would overwhelm many other Magic Knights.

During the confrontation with Patry, Asta’s abilities become crucial in countering the elf’s overwhelming magical power. His determination allows him to continue fighting even when the situation appears hopeless.

However, this conflict also highlights an important limitation: Anti-Magic does not automatically make Asta invincible. He must still position himself correctly, work with his allies, and find opportunities to strike.

The larger conflict surrounding Patry ultimately requires cooperation and understanding, not merely defeating a powerful enemy. Asta’s role demonstrates the importance of confronting injustice without losing sight of the people caught in the middle.

Why this moment matters: Asta shows that someone without magic can become a decisive force against extraordinary magical opponents. His Anti-Magic represents a challenge to the assumptions that have shaped the kingdom for generations.

Also Read: Iruma kun moments: Top 10 Best Scenes Ranked

7. Asta vs. Langris: A Battle That Tests His Resolve

The battle involving Asta, Yuno, and Langris Vaude during the Royal Knights selection competition is one of the most exciting displays of Asta’s determination.

Langris is a powerful spatial magic user whose abilities make him extremely dangerous in combat. He can erase or displace anything caught in the path of his magic, making direct attacks against him difficult.

His arrogance and confidence in his abilities contrast sharply with Asta’s straightforward fighting style.

During the competition, Langris’s hostility toward his brother Finral becomes increasingly disturbing. His actions reveal how far his jealousy and resentment have pushed him, transforming what should be a competitive match into a dangerous confrontation.

Asta refuses to ignore Langris’s behavior. Alongside Yuno, he challenges him and demonstrates that overwhelming magical power does not excuse cruelty or a lack of self-control.

The confrontation highlights Asta’s ability to adapt to an opponent whose magic creates unusual defensive and offensive challenges. His physical conditioning and Anti-Magic provide valuable advantages, but he must also rely on timing, awareness, and cooperation.

The emotional stakes make the encounter more compelling than a straightforward contest of strength. Asta is fighting not only to win but also to stand against someone who has allowed his superiority complex to endanger others.

Why this moment matters: Asta’s courage is not limited to situations where he has a clear advantage. He is willing to confront dangerous people when he believes someone is being treated unfairly.

8. Asta Helps Lead the Black Bulls to Second Place for the First Time

The Black Bulls begin Black Clover with a reputation as one of the least respected Magic Knight squads. Their members are unpredictable, unconventional, and frequently associated with destructive behavior.

Under Yami’s leadership, however, the squad gradually develops into a powerful team capable of accomplishing extraordinary missions.

Asta becomes an important part of this transformation. His enthusiasm encourages his teammates, while his determination helps bring out the potential of people who have often been dismissed by others.

Throughout the series, the Black Bulls take part in dangerous missions, defeat powerful enemies, and contribute to major battles that influence the fate of the kingdom.

Their growing achievements eventually help establish them as one of the Clover Kingdom’s most effective squads. The squad’s rise in the Magic Knights’ rankings reflects how dramatically their reputation has changed.

Although Asta is not solely responsible for the Black Bulls’ accomplishments, his presence represents the spirit that brings the team together. He inspires his fellow members to challenge their limitations and work toward something greater than themselves.

For a squad once treated as an embarrassment, earning recognition among the kingdom’s strongest Magic Knights is a remarkable achievement.

Why this moment matters: Asta’s growth is not measured only by his personal victories. He also helps create an environment where others can succeed. His influence demonstrates that true leadership involves inspiring people, not simply commanding them.

9. Asta’s Greatest Magic Is Never Giving Up

If there is one defining quality that separates Asta from other anime protagonists, it is his refusal to surrender.

In a world where nearly everyone possesses magic, Asta’s existence challenges the assumptions that determine a person’s value. He begins with no magical ability, no noble family, and no special social status.

What he does possess is an extraordinary work ethic.

Asta trains his body relentlessly, developing the physical strength needed to wield enormous swords and compete with opponents who can enhance themselves through magic. He also learns to use his Anti-Magic abilities more effectively, gradually transforming an unusual power into a formidable fighting style.

His determination becomes especially important when he encounters enemies whose abilities appear impossible to overcome. Instead of accepting defeat, Asta looks for another approach.

However, his perseverance is not simply about shouting louder or refusing to acknowledge danger. His growth depends on learning from mistakes, trusting his teammates, and recognizing that he cannot accomplish everything alone.

The people around him also contribute to his development. Yami teaches him to survive in dangerous situations, Noelle grows alongside him, and Yuno’s achievements motivate him to keep improving.

Asta’s attitude also influences the people he encounters. Individuals who have been dismissed because of their weaknesses begin to recognize that their circumstances do not have to determine their futures.

This is why his dream of becoming the Wizard King remains so powerful. He wants to prove that a person’s worth should not be determined by the amount of magic they possess or the family into which they are born.

Why this moment matters: Asta’s determination is not a single scene but the central theme of his entire journey. His greatest strength is his ability to continue moving forward while finding new ways to overcome obstacles.

10. Asta and Yuno Fight Against the Devil

The battle against the devil associated with the Spade Kingdom’s greatest threat represents one of the most significant stages in Asta and Yuno’s development.

The Spade Kingdom arc introduces enemies whose power threatens the entire region. The devils behind these conflicts possess abilities that go beyond the challenges Asta faced during his early days as a Magic Knight.

Asta’s relationship with Liebe, the devil connected to his Anti-Magic, becomes particularly important. Unlike the devils who seek to dominate humanity, Liebe has his own tragic history and reasons for despising the forces responsible for his suffering.

Their partnership changes Asta’s understanding of his abilities. Anti-Magic is no longer simply an unusual power that allows him to challenge conventional magic users. It becomes the foundation of a partnership built on shared pain, trust, and determination.

Meanwhile, Yuno continues developing his own extraordinary abilities, remaining Asta’s closest rival and most important companion.

Their confrontations with devil-powered enemies demonstrate the importance of combining their strengths. Asta’s Anti-Magic can counter magical threats, while Yuno’s Wind Magic and exceptional combat abilities make him a formidable partner.

The battles are especially meaningful because they bring the childhood rivalry between Asta and Yuno into a much larger conflict. Both boys began their lives as orphans in Hage Village, promising to compete for the title of Wizard King. Now, they face enemies capable of threatening countless lives.

Their determination to protect the Clover Kingdom demonstrates how far they have come since their childhood.

Why this moment matters: Asta and Yuno’s fight against devil-level threats shows that their rivalry has become a source of strength rather than division. Together, they demonstrate that cooperation and determination can challenge even the most terrifying enemies.

Final Thoughts: Why Asta Is One of Black Clover’s Most Inspiring Heroes

Asta’s journey in Black Clover is about far more than defeating powerful enemies or mastering Anti-Magic. It is a story about challenging the expectations imposed by society and refusing to accept that a person’s circumstances determine their future.

From standing firm in front of Yami to earning recognition as a valuable member of the Black Bulls, Asta consistently proves that strength can take many forms. His battles against the Diamond Kingdom, Patry, Langris, and devil-powered enemies demonstrate his growing combat abilities, while his determination to protect Noelle, Yuno, Sister Lily, and his hometown reveals the heart behind his ambition.

His achievements are especially meaningful because he does not succeed entirely on his own. Asta learns from his captain, grows alongside his teammates, and develops a partnership with Liebe that allows him to use Anti-Magic in increasingly powerful ways.

Perhaps the most important lesson of Asta’s story is that being disadvantaged does not mean being defeated. He cannot suddenly acquire conventional magic, erase the prejudice surrounding his birth, or avoid every painful experience. Instead, he finds ways to move forward despite those limitations.

That is what makes his dream of becoming the Wizard King so compelling. Asta wants to reach the highest position in the Clover Kingdom while challenging a system that often judges people by their magical abilities and social standing.

Whether he is protecting his friends, standing up to arrogant nobles, or fighting enemies who threaten the entire kingdom, Asta continues to embody the principle that defines his character: never giving up.

And that is why his greatest moments are not simply the battles he wins. They are the moments when everyone expects him to fail, yet he finds the courage to stand back up and fight again.

The post Top 10 Asta Moments in Black Clover That Prove He Is Destined to Become the Wizard King appeared first on .

What makes these scenes work is the contrast between Iruma’s gentle personality and the expectations of a world that celebrates demonic ambition. He does not need to abandon his kindness to become stronger. Instead, he learns when to speak up, how to trust others and why his own wishes deserve consideration.

1. First Day at Babyls: Accidentally Summoning Kalego

Iruma’s introduction to demon society is already absurd. His parents have effectively sold him to Sullivan, a powerful demon who adopts him as his grandson. Sullivan then enrols him at Babyls, where Iruma must conceal the fact that he is human.

The situation becomes even funnier during the familiar-summoning ceremony. Instead of receiving an ordinary demonic companion, Iruma accidentally summons his teacher, Naberius Kalego.

Kalego’s outrage at being bound to a student creates one of the series’ defining comedy routines. His transformation into Iruma’s fluffy, bird-like familiar makes the normally intimidating teacher look ridiculous, while Iruma has to deal with the consequences of a mistake he never intended to make.

The scene establishes the show’s comic formula: Iruma is not trying to embarrass anyone, but his unusual circumstances keep producing chaos.

2. Iruma Finds His First Real Friends in Alice and Clara

Before Babyls, Iruma’s life was shaped by parents who exploited his willingness to help. His first friendships in the demon world offer something entirely different: people who want to spend time with him simply because they like him.

Alice Asmodeus initially approaches Iruma as a rival after their first confrontation at school. However, Iruma’s behaviour challenges Alice’s assumptions about strength and respect. Alice eventually becomes one of his most devoted friends.

Clara Valac brings another kind of energy to the group. Her impulsive behaviour, playful imagination and boundless enthusiasm regularly pull Iruma into ridiculous adventures. Together, the three develop a friendship that balances Alice’s seriousness, Clara’s unpredictability and Iruma’s patient warmth.

The importance of these relationships lies in their everyday nature. They are not formed through a grand prophecy or a shared mission to save the world. They grow through school life, embarrassing situations and the simple act of choosing to spend time together.

Why it matters: Iruma’s friendship with Alice and Clara establishes the emotional foundation of the series. His new life becomes meaningful because he finally has people he can rely on.

3. Iruma Steps Forward During the Dodgeball Competition

Iruma’s early school life repeatedly puts him in situations where physical strength and demonic abilities seem more important than anything a human could offer. The dodgeball competition gives him an opportunity to demonstrate a different kind of capability.

His unusual upbringing has left him with extraordinary reflexes. Having spent years trying to avoid dangerous situations created by his parents, he instinctively reacts to incoming threats. In a school competition, those survival instincts become an advantage.

The sequence is enjoyable because Iruma does not suddenly acquire a conventional battle power that makes him unbeatable. He relies on skills he already possesses, adapting them to an unfamiliar setting.

It also adds a useful dimension to his otherwise gentle personality. Iruma may dislike confrontation, but he is not incapable of acting decisively when circumstances demand it.

Why it matters: The dodgeball competition shows that Iruma’s apparent weakness can conceal genuine strengths, setting up the more demanding challenges he will face at Babyls.

Also Read: How Anime Turns Manga Into Global Hits

4. Iruma’s Wicked Phase Changes the Way Everyone Sees Him

One of the most entertaining character transformations in the anime occurs when Iruma enters his Wicked Phase, often associated with the name Irumean.

His usual nervous expressions and apologetic manner give way to confidence, directness and a striking willingness to express what he wants. The change is immediately noticeable to his classmates, who are accustomed to seeing him put other people’s needs first.

The transformation is funny partly because the difference is so dramatic. Iruma, who normally hesitates to inconvenience anyone, suddenly carries himself like someone who expects the world to listen.

Yet the sequence has a deeper character implication. His usual kindness is admirable, but his habit of avoiding conflict can make it difficult for him to state his own desires. The Wicked Phase offers a playful alternative, allowing him to take up space without constantly worrying about whether he is being troublesome.

Why it matters: This moment makes the audience reconsider Iruma’s shyness. His gentleness is a defining strength, but learning to be assertive is another necessary part of growing up.

5. Iruma Demands the Royal One Classroom for the Misfit Class

The Royal One arc is a turning point because Iruma finally asks for something that benefits his entire class.

The Misfit Class has been treated as a collection of troublesome students. Their classroom is hardly a symbol of prestige, and the students are expected to prove themselves in an environment where their unusual abilities often make them outsiders.

During his Wicked Phase, Iruma proposes moving the class into the legendary Royal One, a classroom associated with the Demon King’s legacy. The request is audacious, and Kalego sets demanding conditions before agreeing to the move. Iruma and his classmates must secure the necessary approvals from the school’s teachers.

What follows is one of the series’ strongest demonstrations of teamwork. The class members use their individual talents to persuade the faculty, turning a seemingly impossible administrative challenge into a collective effort.

The most satisfying part is that Iruma does not simply ask for a privilege for himself. He wants his classmates to have a space that reflects their potential rather than their reputation.

Why it matters: The Royal One moment shows Iruma beginning to lead. He moves from surviving the demon world to actively improving the lives of the people around him.

6. Iruma and His Friends Fight to Protect Walter Park

The Walter Park arc initially feels like a welcome break from schoolwork. Iruma and his classmates visit an amusement park, accompanied by their teachers and surrounded by attractions designed for demon visitors.

That relaxed atmosphere collapses when a terrorist group known as the Six Fingers unleashes dangerous magical beasts. The students are suddenly faced with a genuine emergency, and the trip becomes a test of whether their training and friendships can hold up under pressure.

Iruma’s response is consistent with his character. He is frightened by danger, but his fear does not stop him from trying to protect people. He uses his abilities and the resources available to him to confront a threat that is much bigger than a school competition.

The arc also benefits from giving other members of the Misfit Class opportunities to contribute. The action is not built entirely around Iruma defeating an enemy while everyone else watches. Different characters face different challenges, making their eventual cooperation feel earned.

Why it matters: Walter Park shows that Iruma’s instinct to help others remains intact even when the stakes rise beyond schoolyard embarrassment. His courage comes from acting despite fear, not from being fearless.

7. Iruma’s Archery Training With Bachiko Teaches Him to Aim for

Iruma’s training for the Harvest Festival gives his development a more personal dimension. Under the guidance of Bachiko Barbatos, an accomplished archer, he must learn how to use a bow rather than relying entirely on his natural reflexes.

Bachiko does not simply hand Iruma a weapon and expect him to become skilled overnight. His training requires him to understand the weapon, create a bow suited to himself and develop the focus needed to use it effectively.

The choice of archery is especially fitting for Iruma. His past taught him to react quickly to danger, but reacting is different from deliberately directing his abilities towards a goal.

Training pushes him to do exactly that. He has to think about what he wants to accomplish instead of concentrating solely on what he needs to avoid.

Why it matters: The archery training marks a shift from accidental survival towards purposeful growth. Iruma begins learning how to turn his existing qualities into abilities he can consciously control.

8. Iruma and Lied Work Together During the Harvest Festival

The Harvest Festival challenges Babyls’ first-year students to gather resources and earn points in a dangerous environment. Iruma’s pairing with Shax Lied creates an opportunity to see him work outside his closest friendship circle.

Instead of relying on Alice and Clara to provide familiar support, Iruma must develop a working partnership with Lied. The two face the difficulties of the competition together, adapting their approach as they encounter obstacles and search for a way to improve their standing.

Their partnership matters because Iruma’s growth is not limited to becoming closer to his best friends. He is increasingly capable of building trust with people who have different temperaments, abilities and priorities.

The Harvest Festival also challenges the idea that success must come from overwhelming an opponent. Observation, cooperation and the ability to recognise a useful opportunity can matter just as much as brute force.

Why it matters: His partnership with Lied shows that Iruma is developing into a more adaptable teammate, someone who can form meaningful working relationships beyond his immediate social circle.

9. Iruma Faces His Fear of Abandonment During the Harvest

One of the most revealing parts of the Harvest Festival comes when Iruma is confronted with a psychological challenge rather than a straightforward physical opponent.

Orobas Coco’s bloodline ability exploits other people’s fears and insecurities. During the conflict, Iruma is forced to face the emotional wound left by his parents’ neglect and abandonment.

This moment gives the series a chance to revisit the circumstances that brought Iruma to the demon world. His cheerful attitude and willingness to help others can sometimes make it easy to overlook how much he has endured.

The fear is particularly painful because Iruma’s new life has given him something he lacked before: people who genuinely care about him. The possibility of losing that sense of belonging threatens the security he has slowly built.

Why it matters: The confrontation gives emotional weight to Iruma’s journey. His courage is not simply the ability to face dangerous creatures; it also means confronting the vulnerability that comes with caring about other people.

10. Iruma and Lied Help Bring the Legend Leaf to Life

The conclusion of the Harvest Festival brings together several of the qualities that define Iruma’s best moments: persistence, friendship, adaptability and a willingness to keep going when the answer is not immediately obvious.

Iruma and Lied work towards the Legend Leaf, a major objective of the competition. After gathering the Seed of Beginnings and the Vase of Endings, they still have to figure out how to make the legendary flower bloom. The solution requires them to draw on what they have learnt rather than simply overpowering the challenge.

The eventual success provides a satisfying payoff to the arc. Their achievement is not isolated from the people who helped them along the way. It reflects the knowledge, relationships and determination they have accumulated during the festival.

The Legend Leaf also serves as a fitting image for Iruma’s own development. His progress has not been a sudden transformation from a frightened boy into an invincible hero. It has been a gradual process of learning, making mistakes and becoming more comfortable with his place in the world.

Why it matters: The Harvest Festival finale rewards Iruma’s persistence and partnership with Lied. It shows that growth can be measured not only through rank or strength, but also through what a person learns and accomplishes alongside others.

Which one is your Best Moment ?

The Royal One classroom arc is my pick for the most defining Iruma-kun moment. It brings together his character development, growing confidence and instinct to help others. Rather than winning a fight, Iruma changes how the school sees his classmates and gives them a reason to believe in themselves.

The Walter Park battle is the strongest choice for action, while the Harvest Festival provides some of the series’ most meaningful demonstrations of Iruma’s emotional growth.

The post Iruma kun moments: Top 10 Best Scenes Ranked appeared first on .

Fifteen films cannot settle the argument about the best Hollywood movies of all time, so this list does not try. Treat it as a walking route instead, from a Chaplin comedy that refuses to talk, to a 2023 film shot partly on black-and-white stock that Kodak made for the production. Each stop earns its place by inventing something, proving something or changing what a studio dared to attempt: a technique, a structure, a business model, a machine. Oscars appear as evidence, not as the argument, and the table near the end shows why. Indian films appear here where the link is documented, and where a filmmaker has gone on record about it, the entry says so.

Fifteen stops also mean real absences. Vertigo, Schindler’s List and The Dark Knight are among the films that missed.

15 Best Hollywood Movies of all time Every Indian Cinephile Should Have Seen

1. Modern Times (1936), Charlie Chaplin

The Tramp almost spoke. Chaplin began preparing Modern Times in 1934 as his first talkie, wrote a dialogue script and experimented with some sound scenes, then dropped the idea and went back to a mostly silent format with sound effects and sparse speech. His reasoning was that the Little Tramp would lose his universal appeal the moment he opened his mouth. The film that reached cinemas in February 1936, years into the sound era, leans on physical comedy, and its target is what the Great Depression did to people who worked in factories.

When the Tramp finally makes a sound, it is a nonsense song, and it was the first time Chaplin’s voice was heard on film. It was also the last time he played the Tramp, and in 1989 the Library of Congress named it one of the first 25 films in the National Film Registry.

2. Citizen Kane (1941), Orson Welles

Few films have been buried under as much praise. Citizen Kane topped Sight and Sound‘s critics’ poll in 1962 and stayed there for half a century, until Vertigo replaced it in 2012, and the American Film Institute ranked it first on both its original and anniversary lists. That sounds like homework.

Ignore the ranking and look at the frame. Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland tested new techniques, deep focus among them, which keeps the foreground and the background sharp at once and leaves the viewer to decide where to look. The newspaper tycoon at the centre drew heavily on William Randolph Hearst, and Hearst barred his newspapers from running ads for the film. It earned nine Oscar nominations and one win, for the screenplay Welles shared with Herman Mankiewicz.

3. Casablanca (1942), Michael Curtiz

The film was loosely based on an unproduced play, Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s Everybody Comes to Rick’s, and it reached cinemas in the middle of the war it was about. It opened in New York on 26 November 1942 and went into wider release in January 1943.

The awards record is awkward about its age. The Academy treated it as a film of 1943 and honoured it at the 16th Academy Awards on 2 March 1944. It won Best Picture, Best Director for Curtiz, and Best Screenplay for Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, from eight nominations.

4. 12 Angry Men (1957), Sidney Lumet

One room, twelve men, and no exit for the viewer either. Nearly all of the film takes place in the room where the jurors deliberate. It was Lumet’s first feature, adapted from a 1954 television play by Reginald Rose. It was nominated for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay and won none, though it took the Golden Bear in Berlin.

Indian viewers get a ready-made companion. Basu Chatterjee remade it in Hindi in 1986 as Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, with Pankaj Kapur, Annu Kapoor, M.K. Raina and K.K. Raina among the cast.

New Hollywood and the birth of the event movie: 1972 to 1977

5. The Godfather (1972), Francis Ford Coppola

Some films get remade. This one gets answered. At the 45th Academy Awards it won Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Mario Puzo and Coppola, while Coppola lost the director’s prize to Bob Fosse for Cabaret. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972, and for a time the highest-grossing film ever made. It runs a crime story on the logic of a family business.

Two Indian films answered it. Varma’s Sarkar, set in modern Mumbai, opens with his own on-screen tribute. In Tamil cinema, Nayakan (1987), written and directed by Mani Ratnam, is loosely based on The Godfather and on the life of the Mumbai underworld figure Varadarajan Mudaliar.

Also Read: 15 Underrated Hindi Thriller Movies That Deserve a Much Bigger Audience

6. Jaws (1975), Steven Spielberg

The shark gets the credit. The Academy gave its Oscars to the editor, the composer and the sound team. Of four nominations, Jaws won three: Film Editing for Verna Fields, Original Score for John Williams, and Sound. Spielberg himself was not nominated for directing it. A great deal of the fear in Jaws is built in the cutting room and by the score.

It opened on 20 June 1975 and was the highest-grossing film in history until Star Wars passed it. It is widely credited with setting the template for the summer blockbuster.

7. Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese

Loneliness, written fast. Paul Schrader has said he wrote the script in under a fortnight, after a hospital visit, and that the taxi came to him as a metaphor once he realised he had not spoken to anyone in weeks. Travis Bickle drives a cab through New York at night, and the film stays close to what he sees and thinks.

It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1976 and four Oscar nominations, among them Best Picture, Best Actor for Robert De Niro and Best Supporting Actress for Jodie Foster. It lost Best Picture to Rocky.

8. Star Wars (1977), George Lucas

If Jaws showed that a film could be an event, Star Wars showed how much of that event could be built with new machinery. The Academy’s visual effects Oscar went to John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune and Robert Blalack.

It won six Oscars at the 50th Academy Awards, in Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing, Original Score and Visual Effects, while Annie Hall took Best Picture. The Academy also gave a Special Achievement Award to Ben Burtt for the film’s alien, creature and robot voices.

Pixels, puzzles and film stock: 1993 to 2023

9. Jurassic Park (1993), Steven Spielberg

Two Spielberg films shared the same Oscar night, and between them they won ten awards. Schindler’s List took seven, including Best Picture, and Jurassic Park took all three it was nominated for: Visual Effects, Sound and Sound Effects Editing, at the 66th Academy Awards. The visual effects Oscar went to Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2018.

10. Forrest Gump (1994), Robert Zemeckis

Forrest drifted through American history. Laal Singh Chaddha moved the story to India. From 13 nominations, Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Director, Actor, Film Editing, Visual Effects and Adapted Screenplay. Tom Hanks became the first performer since Spencer Tracy, in 1937 and 1938, to win Best Actor in consecutive years.

The Indian answer is the cleanest on this list, because it is official. Aamir Khan announced that he had secured the rights from Paramount.

Also Read: Rajinikanth Highest Grossing Movies, Ranked Before Jailer 2

11. Pulp Fiction (1994), Quentin Tarantino

Same year, same Oscars, opposite instincts. Pulp Fiction premiered at Cannes in May 1994, won the Palme d’Or and received seven Oscar nominations, winning Best Original Screenplay for Tarantino and Roger Avary. Best Picture went to Forrest Gump.

Its stories are told out of chronological order, which makes it a good film for testing whether you can retell it in the right order. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2013.

12. Titanic (1997), James Cameron

A record is only a record until someone ties it or beats it. Titanic won 11 Oscars from 14 nominations, tying Ben-Hur for wins and All About Eve for nominations. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King later joined it at 11 wins, and Sinners passed its nomination count with 16 at the 98th Academy Awards in 2026.

The eleven wins took in Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Dramatic Score, Original Song, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects. The acting nominations for Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were the first time two performers were nominated for playing the same character in one film.

13. Memento (2000), Christopher Nolan

Memento is built to hand its viewer the hero’s problem. Colour scenes run in reverse chronological order, while the black-and-white scenes move forward. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 5 September 2000 and opened in the United States in March 2001, and the Academy counted it among the films of 2001. Nolan developed the screenplay from an idea by his brother Jonathan, whose short story ‘Memento Mori’ ran in Esquire in March 2001. It was nominated for Original Screenplay and Film Editing, and lost the screenplay prize to Gosford Park.

The Indian counterpart has a contested paper trail. Murugadoss made Ghajini in Tamil in 2005 and remade it in Hindi in 2008 with Aamir Khan in the lead. Its hero has lost his short-term memory, which invited the comparison. Murugadoss has denied that it is a Memento remake.

14. Life of Pi (2012), Ang Lee

A tiger, a lifeboat, and a Tamil lullaby that opens the film. ‘Pi’s Lullaby’ is sung in Tamil by Bombay Jayashri, and it earned her an Original Song nomination alongside composer Mychael Danna. The song lost to ‘Skyfall’.

Life of Pi earned 11 Oscar nominations and won four: Director for Ang Lee, Cinematography, Original Score and Visual Effects. Argo won Best Picture that night. It was Lee’s second Best Director Oscar. It is a Hollywood production with an Indian centre of gravity: Irrfan Khan plays the adult Pi, Tabu and Adil Hussain play his parents, and the family lives in Pondicherry.

15. Oppenheimer (2023), Christopher Nolan

Fission in colour, fusion in black and white. The film labels its two strands on screen as ‘Fission’ and ‘Fusion’. Colour carries Oppenheimer’s point of view, and black-and-white carries that of his rival Strauss, played by Robert Downey Jr. Kodak describes it as the first time sections of black-and-white 65mm were shot in IMAX, on a 65mm version of Eastman Double-X manufactured for the production.

It won seven of its 13 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Nolan, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. each won their first Oscars that night. Nolan appears twice on this list, 23 years apart, and his first Oscar nomination was for the Memento screenplay.

The Oscars record, decade by decade

Only five of the fifteen won Best Picture: Casablanca, The Godfather, Forrest Gump, Titanic and Oppenheimer. Seven more were nominated and lost: Citizen Kane, 12 Angry Men, Jaws, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction and Life of Pi. Modern Times, Jurassic Park and Memento were not nominated for it at all. Oscar-winning films and Oscar losers sit side by side here, and the Oscar column is useful but it is not the filter.

Where this list stops and the Hindi and regional lists begin

A Hollywood list covers only one industry’s answers to questions that Indian cinema asks in its own way. The Indian films above show it was never a one-way conversation. Hindi cinema answered with Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, Sarkar and Laal Singh Chaddha. Tamil cinema answered with Nayakan and Ghajini. A Telugu film’s song, ‘Naatu Naatu’ from RRR, became the first song from an Indian film to win an Oscar, at the 95th Academy Awards in March 2023. Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi cinema each have their own histories and their own canons, and none of them is a footnote to the list above. The next lists in this series start from Hindi cinema and from each regional industry on its own terms.

Indian remakes of Hollywood films, official or not, make good double bills. Three pairings are worth watching back to back: 12 Angry Men with Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, The Godfather with Sarkar, and Forrest Gump with Laal Singh Chaddha.

Fifteen was never going to hold the best Hollywood movies of all time, and the omissions are where the arguing starts. The watching can start with those pairings.

The post Best Hollywood Movies of All Time: 15 Films, 1936 to 2023 appeared first on .

How these 15 were picked

Every film here is Hindi-language and was made for cinemas, so nothing built for streaming. Each has critical or festival recognition, or a documented, lasting audience following. I left out the titles that appear in nearly every list of this kind, so no Andhadhun, Kahaani, Drishyam or A Wednesday!. The span runs from 1960 to 2016. Within each group, films appear in order of release. Credits, years and reception were cross-checked against published reviews and trade and national press.

Look at the credits and a pattern appears. Ram Gopal Varma directed or produced three of these (Kaun?, Ab Tak Chhappan, Ek Hasina Thi). Anurag Kashyap wrote, directed or produced five (Kaun?, No Smoking, Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0, Trapped). The same few people kept placing the genre’s riskiest bets.

Crime and conspiracy

These crime films treat crime as a system rather than a duel: campuses, police units, phone calls from nowhere. Together they make a fair case for the Hindi crime thriller as a form worth revisiting.

1. Haasil (2003)
Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. With Jimmy Sheirgill, Irrfan Khan, Ashutosh Rana, Hrishitaa Bhatt.

Student politics at Allahabad University, played as a small-scale gang war between two factions led by Gauri Shankar Pandey (Rana) and Ranvijay Singh (Irrfan). Irrfan won a Filmfare award for his performance in a negative role. The film was shot in and around Allahabad itself, and Avijit Ghosh included it in his 2013 book 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed, a collection of films he felt had been overlooked. Good for anyone who likes crime stories rooted in one specific town.

Also Read: India’s Oscar entries since 1957, and the three that made the final five

2. Ab Tak Chhappan (2004)
Directed by Shimit Amin, his first film. Written by Sandeep Shrivastava, produced by Ram Gopal Varma. With Nana Patekar, Revathi, Yashpal Sharma.

Patekar plays Inspector Sadhu Agashe, an encounter specialist inspired by the Mumbai police officer Daya Nayak. There are no songs. Pick this if you want a Mumbai police story with the swagger left out.

3. Sehar (2005)
Directed by Kabeer Kaushik. With Arshad Warsi, Pankaj Kapur, Sushant Singh, Mahima Chaudhry.

Warsi plays Ajay Kumar, a newly appointed young SSP of Lucknow, in a story loosely based on the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force’s pursuit of the gangster Shri Prakash Shukla. Ghosh’s 40 Retakes picks it out as one of the more neglected gangster films. Suits viewers who prefer procedure and politics to shootouts.

4. Aamir (2008)
Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, his debut. With Rajeev Khandelwal.

A doctor lands in Mumbai, is handed a phone, and is made to follow instructions from a voice he never sees. It is filmed documentary-style on real Mumbai streets and runs about 100 minutes. For an evening when you want something tight.

Also Read: Rajinikanth Highest Grossing Movies, Ranked Before Jailer 2

5. Ugly (2013)
Directed by Anurag Kashyap. With Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure.

A struggling actor’s daughter disappears, and she turns out to be the stepdaughter of the police chief, who detests him. It premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2013, where reviewers noted that almost nobody in it is innocent. It is bleak, with graphic police brutality and domestic abuse on screen, so choose your evening carefully.

Double-crosses and noir

6. Ek Hasina Thi (2004)
Directed by Sriram Raghavan, his first film. Produced by Ram Gopal Varma. With Urmila Matondkar, Saif Ali Khan.

Sarika is betrayed by the man she loves, jailed, and sets out to take him down. Reviewers praised the performances of both leads. Try it if you like revenge stories with a sense of style.

7. Johnny Gaddaar (2007)
Directed by Sriram Raghavan. With Neil Nitin Mukesh (in his debut), Dharmendra, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain.

Five men who run a gambling den pool money for a deal, a bag goes missing, and the youngest member plans a double-cross. The audience stays ahead of the characters, so the tension comes from watching the plan tighten rather than guessing. It is the closest thing here to a caper, and the easiest entry point in this group.

8. Manorama Six Feet Under (2007)
Directed by Navdeep Singh, his first film. With Abhay Deol, Gul Panag, Raima Sen, Vinay Pathak, Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Abhay Deol plays a suspended junior engineer and failed crime novelist hired by a minister’s wife to watch her husband, in a small Rajasthan town called Lakhot. Singh has spoken of the film’s hat tips to Chinatown. It drew critical praise without making much money, and a cult following grew after it aired on TV. If you liked Chinatown, start here.

Psychological and survival thrillers

These four work on the viewer’s nerves more than their curiosity, and they do it very differently.

9. Kaun? (1999)
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Written by Anurag Kashyap. With Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpayee, Sushant Singh.

A woman alone at home hears news of a serial killer on the loose, and a stranger rings the doorbell. It is shot in one house with no songs, and Matondkar’s character is referred to only as ‘Ma’am’. It came after Satya. Bajpayee has said audiences still bring it up in detail more than two decades on. Good for a night in with the lights off.

10. No Smoking (2007)
Directed by Anurag Kashyap. With John Abraham, Paresh Rawal, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey.

Adapted from Stephen King’s short story ‘Quitters, Inc.’, it follows a chain-smoker, simply called K, who signs up with an underground clinic. It premiered at the Rome Film Festival and was a box-office failure, with Indian critics largely harsh. Later writers, including ZEE5’s own retrospective, have called it Kafkaesque. It rewards viewers who are comfortable with a film that refuses to explain itself.

11. Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016)
Directed by Anurag Kashyap. With Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala.

Loosely inspired by the serial killer who terrorised Bombay in the 1960s, it stars Siddiqui as the killer and Kaushal as the young cop he becomes obsessed with. It premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2016 under the title Psycho Raman, where The Hollywood Reporter called Siddiqui’s performance exceptionally scary. It is violent and relentless. Pick it when you want a thriller that never lets up.

12. Trapped (2016)
Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. With Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa.

A man accidentally locks himself in a high-rise Mumbai flat with no food, water or electricity. It was shot largely over 20 days in one Mumbai apartment, premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival in October 2016, and reached cinemas in March 2017. It runs without an intermission. For viewers who like their suspense physical and close.

Courtroom and jury-room drama

These three use a courtroom or jury room as the pressure chamber.

13. Kanoon (1960)
Directed by B.R. Chopra. With Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Nanda, Mehmood.

A black-and-white courtroom film with no songs, built around a murder and an argument against capital punishment. Madhulika Liddle’s review praises how it balances crime detection and social questions. Suits anyone curious how Hindi cinema handled the form in 1960.

14. Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986)
Directed by Basu Chatterjee. With Pankaj Kapur, Annu Kapoor, K.K. Raina, M.K. Raina, Deepak Qazir.

A Hindi remake of Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957), set in an Indian jury room, with a teenage boy from a slum accused of stabbing his father. All the jurors but one are convinced of his guilt, and K.K. Raina plays the pivotal role. Pick this if you like talk-driven drama in a single room.

15. Shaurya (2008)
Directed by Samar Khan. With Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Bose, Javed Jaffrey, Deepak Dobriyal, Minissha Lamba.

Based on Swadesh Deepak’s play Court Martial and loosely on A Few Good Men, it follows the court martial of a captain who shot his superior officer during a counter-insurgency operation in Kashmir. Two friends, both army lawyers, end up on opposite sides, and the accused does not want to be defended. Taran Adarsh gave it three stars and praised the ensemble. Good for viewers who want a military courtroom drama with moral weight.

Where to start with the best Hindi thriller movies on this list

Match the film to the evening. If you want something quick, Aamir and Trapped both run under two hours. If you want the most conventional pleasures, Johnny Gaddaar is the easiest entry. For slow-burn noir, try Manorama Six Feet Under, and for the oldest film here, Kanoon. If you only want to be unsettled, Kaun? and No Smoking do it in opposite ways. Each of these deserves a place on a watchlist.

The post 15 Underrated Hindi Thriller Movies That Deserve a Much Bigger Audience appeared first on .

How the list is ranked

Every figure is worldwide gross in rupees, taken from Koimoi’s table of Rajinikanth’s ten biggest films (published December 2025), so that all six films are measured by one tracker. Other trackers differ, by a few crore on some films and nearly thirty on the widest, so the table shows that spread as well. These are trade estimates, not audited accounts, and nothing is adjusted for inflation or ticket prices.

Coolie is on the list because, at ₹500 crore plus, it is his third-biggest film.

1. 2.0 (2018): ₹668 crore

Shankar’s sequel to Enthiran is still the biggest film Rajinikanth has made, and it got there as a three-language release. Lyca Productions put it out on 29 November 2018 in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu, in 2D and 3D. Akshay Kumar, making his Tamil film debut, played the villain: an ornithologist who declares war on mobile phones.

What matters for the ranking is where the money came from. In the opening weekend, Mint, citing Box Office India, reported that the Hindi version was leading the collections while the Tamil version was ‘just about sustaining’. So ₹668 crore is a national number, not a Tamil Nadu one.

Round numbers run higher still: Gulf News quotes ₹700 crore to ₹800 crore. The closing figures from Pinkvilla (₹663.5 crore), Koimoi (₹668 crore) and Sacnilk (₹691 crore) sit in a band of about thirty crore. Against its predecessor the jump is plain: Enthiran closed under ₹300 crore, so the sequel more than doubled it.

Also Read: India’s Oscar entries since 1957, and the three that made the final five

2. Jailer (2023): ₹604.83 crore

The sharpest turnaround on the list. Annaatthe (2021) finished at ₹173.68 crore on Koimoi’s table, and Jailer took almost three and a half times that. It was Nelson Dilipkumar’s first film with Rajinikanth, made for Sun Pictures, with Mohanlal and Shiva Rajkumar in guest roles and Vinayakan as the villain. It opened on 10 August 2023.

It also leaves the clearest paper trail of any film here. Sun Pictures posted a first-week worldwide total of ₹375.40 crore on 17 August 2023, and Ayngaran International, which handled overseas, said day-one overseas business crossed ₹33 crore, the highest of his career. Against a closing figure near ₹605 crore, that first week is about 62 per cent of the lifetime total.

Some reports, Gulf News among them, quote a range that stretches to ₹650 crore. The trackers settle between ₹604.5 crore and ₹607 crore.

3. Coolie (2025): ₹516.81 crore

Lokesh Kanagaraj’s film, produced by Sun Pictures, arrived on 14 August 2025 over the Independence Day weekend, with Nagarjuna, Soubin Shahir and an Aamir Khan cameo. Sacnilk reported a worldwide day one above ₹150 crore and a first weekend near ₹385 crore, both records for Tamil cinema.

Then the run stopped. Against Sacnilk’s closing figure of ₹518.5 crore, that weekend alone was about 74 per cent of the lifetime gross, in four days. Closing totals vary by outlet: ₹501 crore at Pinkvilla, ₹516.81 crore at Koimoi, ₹518.5 crore at Sacnilk. They agree on the line that counts. Pinkvilla counted it as the fourth Tamil film past ₹500 crore, and the third of those to star Rajinikanth.

Whether that makes it a hit depends on whose books you read. Koimoi gives it a losing verdict against a ₹350 crore budget. Pinkvilla’s reading was that the producers made some profit while distributors took losses, with top-end talent fees inflating the budget. On Pinkvilla’s breakdown, Tamil Nadu supplied ₹144.25 crore, about 45 per cent of the India gross.

Also Read: Nana Patekar Best Movies: 10 Films That Show Why His Screen Anger Had a Reason

4. Enthiran (2010): ₹295.75 crore

Enthiran arrived on 1 October 2010 as a Sun Pictures production directed by Shankar, with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan opposite Rajinikanth. Its gross has stayed remarkably steady across trackers: Pinkvilla has put it at ₹289.75 crore, Sacnilk at ₹291 crore, Koimoi at ₹295.75 crore.

It is also the film Kabali was measured against. Koimoi’s report on Kabali‘s fifth day expected it to overtake Enthiran‘s ₹290 crore. On Koimoi’s table today, it did not.

5. Kabali (2016): ₹292.3 crore

Pa. Ranjith’s gangster drama released on 22 July 2016, a day after its Malaysia premiere, on nearly 5,000 screens worldwide. IANS reported more than ₹150 crore worldwide over the opening weekend and a North America take of $3.5 million in two days, premieres included, from distributor CineGalaxy, while noting that reviews were mixed. Koimoi reported ₹250 crore in five days. The closing figure on the same site is ₹292.3 crore.

Where it sits against Enthiran is the one genuinely open question in this ranking. Koimoi and Pinkvilla put Enthiran ahead, by about ₹3.45 crore on Koimoi’s numbers. Gulf News lists Kabali at ₹305 crore, above Enthiran. Treat positions four and five as a near tie.

6. Vettaiyan (2024): ₹255.33 crore

T.J. Gnanavel, best known for Jai Bhim, directed this Lyca Productions film, released on 10 October 2024, in the run-up to Dussehra. Amitabh Bachchan made his Tamil debut in it, alongside Fahadh Faasil, Rana Daggubati and Manju Warrier.

The first six days were strong. Sacnilk had it at about ₹203 crore worldwide, ₹134 crore of that from India. Then came a Monday drop of around 75 per cent. It closed at ₹253.69 crore on Sacnilk and ₹255.33 crore on Koimoi, which means about 80 per cent of its money was in the bank within those first six days. Darbar (2020) trails it by only about ₹5 crore on Koimoi’s table, so sixth place is thin.

What separates the top three

Look at the last three releases together and a pattern shows. Sacnilk’s tallies put Coolie at roughly 74 per cent of its final gross after the first weekend and Vettaiyan at roughly 80 per cent after six days. Jailer, by Sun Pictures’ own first-week figure, had about 62 per cent after a full seven. The windows differ, and this is a reading of trade numbers rather than a proven cause. It does fit the table: all three opened enormously, and the one that kept selling tickets after the first week is the one at ₹605 crore.

What Jailer 2 has to beat

Sun Pictures announced the date on 2 September: Thursday 15 October, in the Dussehra window, with Nelson directing, Anirudh Ravichander on music and Rajinikanth back as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian. Earlier reports of reshoots had raised talk of a delay; the studio’s announcement and a fresh poster put that to rest.

The bars are specific. Matching the first film means about ₹605 crore. Topping 2.0 means about ₹668 crore. The first-week figure will arrive within days of release. The number that decides where Jailer 2 lands is the one that comes after it.

Until then, this is where the Rajinikanth highest grossing movies list stands, and it is a shorter list at the top than most people assume.

The post Rajinikanth Highest Grossing Movies, Ranked Before Jailer 2 appeared first on .

This is a guide to India’s Oscar entries, from Mother India to now: the three nominees, what has happened since, and the full list, ceremony by ceremony. The category was called Best Foreign Language Film for most of this history. The Academy dropped ‘foreign’ in 2019, and it is now Best International Feature Film.

Who decides what India sends

Each country sends one film. In India the choice belongs to a committee appointed by the Film Federation of India (FFI), an industry body. This year it watched 33 films and announced Gondhal on 18 September 2026. Committee chairman P Sheshadri named Angh and Ikkis as the other two finalists.

That monopoly has now loosened. For the 99th Oscars the Academy added a second route: a non-English film that wins one of six named festival prizes can enter without national selection. The Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform Prize is one of the six. On 20 September, Theja Rio’s Angh, a debut set in 1960s Nagaland, won it. India now has two films in the race.

The three that made the final five

All three lost on the night, to films from Italy, Denmark and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively.

Mother India (1957): 30th Academy Awards, 26 March 1958

Mehboob Khan had already told this story once. Aurat (1940) followed a farming woman holding her family together through hardship. In 1957 he remade it in colour, producing as well as directing, with Nargis as Radha, a poor village wife who raises her sons against a moneylender. Kanhaiyalal played the moneylender, Sukhilala. Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar played the sons, and Naushad wrote the music.

The film opened in India on 25 October 1957. Its four rivals at the Academy were Italy’s Nights of Cabiria (the winner), West Germany’s The Devil Came at Night, France’s Gates of Paris and Norway’s Nine Lives. Mehboob’s biographer Bunny Reuben wrote that Mother India lost by a single vote at the third poll.

Total Film reads Radha’s endurance as a metaphor for the young Indian nation. That is a critic’s interpretation, not a confirmed intention, but the film gives it plenty to work with: a mother, a debt and a village that will not let go.

Salaam Bombay! (1988): 61st Academy Awards, 29 March 1989

Mira Nair came to this from documentaries. It was her first fiction feature, and she cast real street children and put them through an acting workshop before shooting on Bombay’s streets. Shafiq Syed plays Krishna, a tea-boy left behind when a travelling circus moves on. According to Sight and Sound, Syed had run away to Bombay himself.

The film premiered at Cannes in May 1988 and won the Caméra d’Or and the Audience Award. It also took the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. At the Oscars it faced Hungary’s Hanussen, Belgium’s The Music Teacher and Spain’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Denmark’s Pelle the Conqueror won. Nair used the film’s proceeds to set up the Salaam Baalak Trust, a non-profit for street children.

It is the odd one out of the three. It has a child at the centre rather than a star, a documentary-trained director rather than an industry veteran, and a Cannes record behind it before the Academy had seen a frame.

Lagaan (2001): 74th Academy Awards, 24 March 2002

Lagaan was the first production from Aamir Khan Productions. Ashutosh Gowariker wrote and directed, and Khan plays Bhuvan, a farmer in the village of Champaner in 1893. A drought has made the land tax unpayable. A British officer, Captain Russell, offers a wager: beat his team at cricket, a game the villagers have never played, and the tax is cancelled for three years. Lose, and it triples. The second half is the match, in a film that runs close to four hours.

It opened on 15 June 2001 and won the audience prize at Locarno. At the 2002 Filmfare Awards it won eight, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor. The Oscar field was France’s Amélie, Norway’s Elling, Argentina’s Son of the Bride and the winner, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s No Man’s Land.

Lagaan matters for another reason. It is proof that India’s mainstream, and not only its festival cinema, can reach the final five: star-produced, scored by A. R. Rahman, built around songs and close to four hours long.

What the three share, and what they don’t

All three are Hindi-language dramas. Money owed drives two of them: a moneylender’s debt in Mother India, a colonial tax in Lagaan. In Salaam Bombay! the pressure is survival with no safety net at all. That pattern is an observation, not a rule.

Each also arrived with recognition that travelled before the Academy saw the film: Filmfare’s Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress awards for Mother India, the Cannes Audience Award for Salaam Bombay! and the Locarno audience prize for Lagaan. Beyond that there is no formula. One is a studio epic, one a festival-circuit debut, one a star-produced crowd-pleaser.

The other 56

Since 1984 India has missed only one year. In 2003 the FFI declined to send anything for the 76th Oscars, saying its committee could not find a suitable film.

Satyajit Ray was sent three times, more than any other director, with The World of Apu, Mahanagar and The Chess Players. Mani Ratnam, S. Shankar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sudhendu Roy were each sent twice.

Of the 16 most recent submissions (the last 16 rows of the table below), six are Hindi, three Malayalam, two each Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil, and one Assamese.

Twenty-three films have been sent since Lagaan, and none has been nominated. Two did reach the Academy’s shortlist of 15. Pan Nalin’s Gujarati film Last Film Show made it in December 2022, the first Indian film on that list in more than 20 years. Homebound, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Hindi film, made it in December 2025, one of 15 chosen from 86 submissions. On 22 January 2026 it missed the final five, which went to Brazil’s The Secret Agent, France’s It Was Just an Accident, Norway’s Sentimental Value, Spain’s Sirât and Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab.

Why so few

Three arguments recur in the record.

The selection itself. Bhavna Talwar took the FFI to the Bombay High Court in 2007 over the choice of Eklavya ahead of her film Dharm, alleging that jury members’ ties to the director had compromised the process. In 2013, The Good Road was picked over The Lunchbox, and Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar publicly criticised the decision. In 2024, Laapataa Ladies was chosen over All We Imagine as Light, which had won the Grand Prix at Cannes. Jury chairman Jahnu Barua defended the call by saying the jury found Payal Kapadia’s film technically weak.

The campaign. Critic Baradwaj Rangan has argued that Oscar races reward films whose backers can afford to take them to Los Angeles and put them in front of the right voters.

The single slot. Until this year a country’s one film was the only way in. Angh is the first Indian test of the new festival route.

India’s Oscar submissions, ceremony by ceremony

The FFI also publishes this list on its own website.

What happens next

The Academy’s shortlist of 15 is due on 15 December 2026, the nominations follow in January 2027 and the ceremony is on 14 March 2027. The last nominee, Lagaan, was a star-produced Hindi film of nearly four hours. This year’s two contenders are a 117-minute Marathi thriller set over a single night and a Konyak-language debut shot on 16mm. If either ends the wait, India’s Oscar entries will have produced a fourth nominee from a very different place than the first three.

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Read together, they make one argument. Plenty of actors play rage as spectacle. Patekar played it as an argument, and that made him the angriest conscience Hindi and Marathi cinema ever had.

Nana Patekar best movies: how these ten were picked

The method is simple. I began with the films named in the tributes from ANI, Business Today and The Statesman, then kept the ones that won him a National Film Award, a Filmfare Award or a Filmfare Marathi Award, or that show a side of him the rest do not. They run in release order, not ranked order. Ranking performances this different from one another would be false precision.

1. Parinda (1989): the template for his quiet menace

Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda is where Nana Patekar’s reputation was set. As the crime lord Anna Seth he won both the National Film Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Business Today credits the film with establishing him as a force to reckon with. In my view the ‘supporting’ label undersells the performance. Anna is the character everyone else in the film is reacting to. Watch it for the stillness: a clipped sentence, a pause a beat too long, a contempt that needs no volume. Much of what he later did with menace is already here.

2. Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991): the disciplined Patekar

This was his directorial debut, and he also acted in it. He trained for about three years for the role of an Army officer, and the film includes a young officer’s commando training at the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre. Madhuri Dixit co-stars. Reports say Patekar held honorary rank in the Territorial Army, which helps explain why the uniform sits so easily on him here. Watch it for the other side of the actor known for volatility: the one who chose a disciplined institution as his subject.

3. Angaar (1992): anger as a threat

Angaar won him the first of his two Filmfare Awards for Best Villain, for the role of Majid Khan. It is the clearest case on this list of anger written as a threat, which is why it matters here. Put it beside Krantiveer two years later and you can see the same instrument aimed in a different direction.

4. Krantiveer (1994): anger with a cause

Directed by Mehul Kumar, Krantiveer gave Patekar both the National Film Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actor, for playing Pratap Narayan Tilak, whom The Statesman calls furious. Reports say he fell ill during the shoot and filmed the climax after coming out of hospital. Nana Patekar’s Krantiveer is the film in which his anger stops being a threat and becomes something an audience is invited to trust. That shift defines the rest of his career.

5. Agni Sakshi (1996): the second National Award

Agni Sakshi brought a second National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, for the role of Vishwanath, a sadistic husband. It earns its place because it is the darkest domestic version of the Patekar temper. Business Today and The Statesman both name it among his defining work, and it is the film that completes his set of Nana Patekar National Award wins for supporting roles.

6. Khamoshi: The Musical (1996): the quiet one

Patekar plays a deaf father opposite Manisha Koirala, and the performance earned a Filmfare nomination for Best Actor. It is the film to show anyone who thinks he only did volume. A deaf character takes away the voice the rest of his career is known for, so the performance has to live somewhere else. ANI, Business Today and The Statesman all list it among his key films.

7. Ab Tak Chhappan (2004): control instead of explosion

As the encounter-specialist police officer Sadhu Agashe, Patekar plays a man who is dangerous because he is composed. The Statesman calls Agashe controlled, and that is the right word. He returned to the role in Ab Tak Chhappan 2 in 2015. Ram Gopal Varma worked with him on Ab Tak Chhappan, and in his tribute he called Patekar the ‘GOD of acting’.

8. Apaharan (2005): the second villain award

Apaharan brought his second Filmfare Award for Best Villain, for the role of Tabrez Alam. Thirteen years after Angaar, it is proof that the villain’s side of his talent had not gone anywhere. It also means he won Filmfare Awards in the Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villain categories, which is a rare spread.

9. Welcome (2007): menace as a punchline

As the gangster Uday Shetty, Patekar became a comic figure without losing the menace. Business Today notes it introduced his style to a new generation of viewers. The Statesman calls the character a pop-culture fixture and says Uday still turns up in every chat that needs a calm voice. Akshay Kumar, who shared the screen with him here, later called him a rare actor who never needed to do too much. Patekar reprised the role in Welcome Back (2015). In my view it works because he plays it straight: the gangster stays a gangster, and the film places him in situations where menace turns funny.

10. Natsamrat (2016): the stage king in decline

Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, Natsamrat adapts Kusumagraj’s 1970 play. Kusumagraj was the pen name of Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, a Jnanpith Award winner, and Shriram Lagoo played the lead on stage for a long time. The Week’s review of the film noted there was once a time when an actor was not considered good unless he had played Ganpatrao Belwalkar. The film follows Belwalkar, a retired stage actor whose family life turns tragic after he hands his wealth to his children. Vikram Gokhale plays his friend Rambhau.

It runs 166 minutes and was released on 1 January 2016, Patekar’s birthday. It was a critical and commercial success. Nana Patekar’s Natsamrat was also a film he produced, with Vishwas Joshi, and it won him the Filmfare Marathi Award for Best Actor. A man who began on stage at 13 was playing a king of the stage in decline, and he chose to produce the film too. It is hard not to read something of himself into that choice, though that is a reading, not a claim about his intent.

How his anger changed across the decades

Business Today names Ankush (1986) as his breakthrough and Parinda as the film that made him a force. The 1990s are where the range opens up: a Best Villain award for Angaar in 1992, a Best Actor award for Krantiveer in 1994, and a gentler register in Khamoshi: The Musical in 1996. The 2000s add control in Ab Tak Chhappan, a second villain award for Apaharan, and comedy in Welcome. The 2010s belong to Marathi cinema and Natsamrat. Through all of it the instrument stays the same: a voice, a stare and short, sharp dialogue, as The Statesman puts it. Only the target of the anger changes.

What the tributes noticed

The tributes after his death point the same way. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of his versatility. Akshay Kumar spoke of an actor who never had to overdo anything. Riteish Deshmukh described someone who moved between larger-than-life heroes, terrifying villains and deadpan comedy. The common thread is range with restraint, which is a hard combination to fake.

Also worth watching

Tirangaa (1993) puts him alongside Raaj Kumar. In Raajneeti (2010) he played Brij Gopal, the shrewd political mentor in a feuding family, and earned a Filmfare nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In The Attacks of 26/11 (2013) he played Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria. Business Today singles out Deool among his Marathi work, and Aapla Manus (2018), which he produced with Ajay Devgn, was adapted from Dr Vivek Bele’s play Katkon Trikon. He stayed on screen into his seventies, with a supporting role in Housefull 5 (2025), a police officer in Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’Romeo, and a cameo in Subedar.

Where to start

If you have time for three, start with Parinda for the stillness, Krantiveer for anger with a cause, and Natsamrat for the version of the actor with nothing to protect him. That sequence moves from menace to purpose to exposure, and it is the shortest route to the argument at the top of this guide.

The verdict

Patekar was a rare presence in Indian cinema because his temper always felt earned. At his best, he gave anger a reason: a gangster’s code, an Army officer’s discipline, an old actor’s wounded pride. That is why he lasted across two film industries, many genres and several generations. Hindi and Marathi cinema have lost their angriest conscience, and these ten films show how rare it is to find one.

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The copying is the least interesting part. The editing is where it gets good. Hindi cinema cut almost everything that made Bond Bond, and replaced it with songs and good manners.

A remake of a remake

Where Farz came from

Farz (1967) was directed by Ravikant Nagaich, with Jeetendra as Gopal, Agent 116, and Babita as Sunita, the woman he falls for during the investigation. Officially it remakes the Telugu spy film Gudachari 116 (1966), whose lead, Krishna, picked up the nickname ‘Andhra James Bond’.

The Telugu film was inspired by a 1964 French thriller, Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117, one of the Eurospy films Europe turned out in Bond’s wake. So the first Hindi Bond is a remake of a remake of an imitation. The researcher Krzysztof Lipka-Chudzik, in a paper on the genre in Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, says Farz descends from Bond’s commercial success rather than from any Bond film.

Agent 116 and the unnamed enemy

The plot follows the template. Agent 303 is killed, Gopal inherits the case, and the trail leads to a foreign conspiracy against India. The mastermind, Supremo, wears a Mao jacket and is a crude caricature of a Chinese communist, though the film never names his country.

Lipka-Chudzik links this vagueness to the censorship of the period and India’s non-alignment policy. Hindi films of the 1960s generally avoided naming real enemies, so villains were simply the ‘dushman’, the enemy.

The white shoes that made a star

Jeetendra was a young actor, and not yet a star, when he took the role. Farz changed that, largely through one song. For ‘Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq’ he wore a white T-shirt and white shoes, a look that became his trademark and fed the nickname ‘Jumping Jack’. Hindi cinema’s first screen Bond introduced himself by dancing.

What Bond lost on the way to Bombay

The rules a Hindi hero had to follow

Bond’s brand in 1962 was martinis, women and a licence to kill. Hindi cinema in 1967 could carry almost none of it. Lipka-Chudzik lists what had to go. The hero could not drink on screen, because the censors were strict about it. He could not romance a vamp; his love interest had to be a chaste woman he would plainly marry. He could not be a cynic, since a Hindi hero of that decade was meant to stand for every virtue.

That is why the agent was usually a policeman from the CID or CBI. It makes many Bollywood Bond films what the researcher calls ‘spy movies without spies’.

A Bond with a college student’s temperament

The hero also needed a comic sidekick, which is why a fight scene in Farz turns into a pie-throwing routine. What survived was Bond in a tuxedo with the temperament of a final-year college student. The swimming-pool scenes look racier than they are; Lipka-Chudzik reads them as celebrations of fitness and youth rather than sex.

The exception arrived the same year. In C.I.D. 909 (1967), Feroz Khan plays a cynical, hat-tossing agent much closer to Connery, and the film opens with a fight instead of a song.

Ankhen: the Bollywood James Bond film that topped 1968

From Assam to Beirut

Ramanand Sagar’s Ankhen (1968) came right after Farz. Sagar was years away from becoming known for the television serial Ramayan. Dharmendra plays Sunil, an intelligence-trained patriot sent to Beirut after a colleague is killed. The action runs from Assam to Lebanon to Japan, which is pure Bond ambition.

Mala Sinha, billed ahead of Dharmendra because of her box-office pull, plays Meenakshi, who chases Sunil through the film while he turns her down on grounds of duty. Lipka-Chudzik notes the irony: Dharmendra was one of Hindi cinema’s first male sex symbols, yet his agent renounces romance.

A hit that lives on as an album

The villains go by Doctor, Madam, Captain and Lily, and their politics are never pinned down. The heroes are not government agents either. They are a private network of concerned citizens, one of them a former INA man, which is a curious echo of 1968, the year RAW was formed.

Published box-office rankings place Ankhen at the top of the 1968 list, ahead of Padosan. ThePrint’s Amit Upadhyaya argues it survives more as an album than as a thriller, and singles out Ravi’s melody ‘Gairaon Pe Kadam’, with lyrics by Sahir.

Agent 116 changes hands

According to Lipka-Chudzik, Hindi producers of the era distrusted sequels, so Agent 116 became a name passed between stars rather than a series with one face. Dharmendra played the agent in Keemat (1973), and Jeetendra returned to the role in Raksha. Nagaich, who directed all three, also gave Mithun Chakraborty his own spy, Gun Master G-9, in Surakksha and Wardat.

The films that took without asking

Lairs, themes and title sequences

Some Hindi films never bothered with a hero called 116. They lifted the parts they liked. According to Lipka-Chudzik, Warrant (1975) opens its credits with the Bond theme blended with a tune from Enter the Dragon, and its climax borrows a villain’s lair hidden under a mountain lake and a helicopter fight edited in from You Only Live Twice.

Shaan (1980) opens with a Bond-style title sequence built around a dancing silhouette, and its villain Shakaal, with his henchmen and island base, is modelled on Blofeld. Mogambo of Mr. India (1987) comes from the same family. The same study says Mr. Bond (1992), starring Akshay Kumar, opens almost frame for frame like Never Say Never Again.

The straight clones, and why they faded

Agent Vinod (1977) went furthest. Mahendra Sandhu’s agent has an M, a Q and a golden gun, and his sidekick introduces himself as James Bond in case anyone missed the reference. Yet the straight clones among Bollywood James Bond films are mostly forgotten.

What lasted was the furniture: the villain’s lair, the henchmen, the elaborate death trap. Lipka-Chudzik notes that these became standard masala ingredients. Bond did not disappear from Hindi cinema; he ended up spread across it.

Bond gets a budget

By the early 1990s the genre had faded. In 2012 it returned with money behind it. Ek Tha Tiger was the biggest commercial hit of the year, while Sriram Raghavan’s Agent Vinod, with Saif Ali Khan, flopped. Both heroes work for RAW, an option the 1960s agents never had. Salman Khan’s Tiger even tells his boss he sometimes wants to shout that he is James Bond.

Why they are worth a rewatch

Global James Bond Day is a good excuse to go back to Farz and Ankhen, and not for the plots. Watch how much the Bollywood James Bond films had to remove to make 007 safe for 1960s audiences. Then notice how much of it walked back in during the 1970s, once the censors relaxed.

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The Busan International Film Festival opens on 6 October and runs till 15 October, which makes this a good week to ask what comes next. Search for Korean movies like Parasite and you mostly get lookalikes, more rich-against-poor thrillers with a staircase in them. This guide goes the other way. It pulls Parasite apart into five ingredients and follows each one back to films that served it earlier, or harder.

The five: a comedy that curdles, class anger that drives the plot, a set that does half the storytelling, pure genre thrills, and history waiting just outside the frame. Take the one you loved and start there.

How these films were picked: each one either played in a major festival competition or section, won a significant award, or has a documented link to Indian cinema. Dates, awards and box-office figures were checked against festival archives, trade-press reports of Korean Film Council data and studio announcements. Sources are listed at the end.

The ground it grew on

Korean cinema did not wake up in 2019. Until 1996, films had to clear a state pre-screening review. That year the Constitutional Court ruled the system unconstitutional, and the first Pusan International Film Festival opened that September. (The city was romanised as Busan from 2000, but the festival only adopted the new spelling in February 2011.) In February 1999, Kang Je-gyu’s thriller Shiri overtook Titanic as the most-seen film in the country, and that May the state-backed Korean Film Council was launched. By 2006, Korean titles held 64 per cent of the home market. Bong Joon-ho trained at the Korean Academy of Film Arts, which opened in 1984.

What that adds up to is an industry assured enough to let a monster movie or a murder mystery carry politics. Parasite is the most visible result of that, not the cause.

1. The comedy that curdles

Three Bong Joon-ho movies sit under this heading, and the first is the one to see before any other.

Start with Memories of Murder (2003). Song Kang-ho plays a rural detective in the late 1980s, and the film is darkly funny about men who have no idea how to investigate a murder. Then it stops being funny, and it does not warn you.

The case is real. Between 1986 and 1991, ten women and girls were murdered around Hwaseong, south of Seoul. Police put more than two million officers on the hunt, a record for a single case in Korea, and did not find the killer. In September 2019, months after Parasite won at Cannes, DNA evidence identified Lee Chun-jae, already serving a life sentence for killing his sister-in-law in 1994. He confessed to 14 murders, including all ten. The statute of limitations had expired, so the Hwaseong killings could not be prosecuted. The film did not catch him; police forensic work did.

The Host (2006) is Bong’s proof that a creature feature can double as a family drama and a political joke. Something mutated climbs out of the Han River in Seoul and takes the daughter of Park Gang-du, a snack-bar worker played by Song Kang-ho. It premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes on 21 May 2006 and broke Korea’s box-office record that year. Park Hae-il, who later played the detective in Decision to Leave, is in this one and in Memories of Murder.

Mother (2009) is the quietest of the three and the strangest. Kim Hye-ja, long loved on Korean television, plays a widow trying to clear her adult son of a murder charge, and Bong turns her lovable screen persona inside out. It played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in May 2009.

2. Class anger as the plot

Parasite puts two families under one roof. Burning (2018) keeps its characters in the same social circle and lets the discomfort sit for 148 minutes. Lee Chang-dong built it from Haruki Murakami’s short story ‘Barn Burning’. A delivery man who wants to be a writer (Yoo Ah-in) bumps into a girl from his old neighbourhood (Jeon Jong-seo). She comes back from a trip with Ben (Steven Yeun), who is rich, calm, and has a hobby he mentions in passing.

At Cannes in 2018 it went home without the Palme d’Or but with the FIPRESCI critics’ prize and the highest score ever recorded on Screen International’s critics’ jury grid. Murakami readers will notice how much Lee adds to a slender short story. Everyone else should know that it is slow on purpose.

No Other Choice (2025) is the newest film here, a black comedy from Park Chan-wook adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s novel The Ax. Lee Byung-hun plays Yoo Man-su, a paper-industry veteran of 25 years who loses his job and works out a radical way of beating the competition for the next one. It premiered in competition at Venice on 29 August 2025 and opened the 30th Busan festival. South Korea submitted it for the Oscars. It made the 15-film international shortlist in December 2025 but missed the final five in January 2026.

3. When the set is a character

Two Park Chan-wook movies belong on any first list, and they could hardly be more different.

The Handmaiden (2016) moves Sarah Waters’ Victorian con-artist novel Fingersmith to 1930s Korea under Japanese rule. A young pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) is placed as maid to a Japanese heiress (Kim Min-hee) as part of a scheme run by a fake count (Ha Jung-woo). The story is told in three parts from shifting viewpoints. The estate mixes Japanese and British architecture, which makes half the colonial argument in plaster and wallpaper. Production designer Ryu Seong-hie won the Vulcain Prize at Cannes, and the film won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Decision to Leave (2022) is the restrained one. A detective (Park Hae-il) investigating a man’s fall from a mountain is drawn to the dead man’s widow (Tang Wei), who is also his suspect. Park won Best Director at Cannes for it. He has said he chose a piece by Mahler because no other classical piece fitted as well, and that the methodical police work came from the Martin Beck crime novels. Nothing in it announces itself. It works by withholding.

4. Genre at full volume

Oldboy (2003) helped put Korean cinema on the global stage. Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is held for 15 years without being told why, then released, just as abruptly and just as unexplained. It is loosely adapted from a Japanese manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004, with jury president Quentin Tarantino personally backing it. It is graphically violent, so if that is not your register, move on to the next entry. India has history with this film too; see the section on remakes below.

Train to Busan (2016) earns its place this week on geography alone: a zombie outbreak starts while a KTX train runs from Seoul to Busan. Director Yeon Sang-ho made it for about US$8.5 million, and Screen Daily, citing Korean Film Council data, reported more than 11.5 million admissions in Korea. An animated prequel, Seoul Station, followed in the same year.

The Wailing (2016) is Na Hong-jin’s rural horror, 156 minutes long: a policeman (Kwak Do-won), a Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura) and a shaman (Hwang Jung-min), in a village that the film’s Korean title, Gokseong, names. It was Na’s third film to reach Cannes. One coincidence is worth knowing. Train to Busan (Midnight Screenings), The Wailing (Out of Competition) and The Handmaiden (in competition) all played the same Cannes edition in 2016.

5. When history walks into the frame

A Taxi Driver (2017) is the most approachable of the history films. Song Kang-ho plays a Seoul cab driver who takes a German reporter to Gwangju in May 1980, in the middle of the uprising. The reporter is based on Jürgen Hinzpeter, the German journalist who filmed the events. The driver’s own life is largely invented, because little was known about the real driver, Kim Sa-bok, when the film was made. It drew 12.19 million admissions in Korea and was selected as South Korea’s Oscar entry.

Silenced (2011) comes with a warning: it deals with the sexual abuse of deaf children and is hard to watch. Hwang Dong-hyuk directed it from Gong Ji-young’s novel The Crucible (Dogani in Korean), which drew on real abuse at Gwangju Inhwa School for the deaf. It opened on 22 September 2011. In October, the National Assembly passed what became known as the Dogani Law, ending the statute of limitations for sexual assault against children under 13 and people with disabilities. Gwangju City closed the school in November.

Peppermint Candy (1999) is Lee Chang-dong’s second film. It runs backwards across twenty years in one man’s life, and each step back lands on a different stretch of Korea’s military-era and post-dictatorship history. It was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and won a Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary.

Lee began as a novelist and served as South Korea’s Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004 before going back to directing. Secret Sunshine (2007), about a single mother whose husband has recently died, won Jeon Do-yeon the Best Actress award at Cannes. Poetry (2010) won Best Screenplay there. Yoon Jeong-hee, returning to the screen after a long absence, plays Mija, an older woman who begins writing poems while raising her grandson alone. These are the quiet ones. If Parasite was too loud for you, go here.

The Indian detour: films that came home to us

India has borrowed from Korea for years, and the traffic now runs both ways. Miss Granny (2014) is a comedy about a woman in her seventies who ends up in the body of her 20-year-old self after a visit to a photo studio. Its director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, is the same man behind Silenced and, later, Squid Game. It sold 8.65 million tickets in Korea. The Telugu remake, Oh! Baby (2019), directed by Nandini Reddy and starring Samantha and Lakshmi, released on 5 July 2019.

Sanjay Gupta’s Hindi film Zinda (2006) was an unauthorised take on Oldboy, as Variety’s review put it at the time. Ram Madhvani’s Dhamaka (2021) is an official Hindi remake of The Terror Live, and Salman Khan’s Radhe (2021) remakes The Outlaws. In the other direction, Panorama Studios and Anthology Studios, the Korean company co-founded by Song Kang-ho, Kim Jee-woon and Jay Choi, announced a Korean remake of the Drishyam franchise at Cannes in 2023. The Malayalam original, from 2013, was directed by Jeethu Joseph and had already been remade in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

What Busan is showing this week

The 31st edition runs from 6 to 15 October at the Busan Cinema Center and across the city, with more than 300 films. It opens with the world premiere of The Table: Day and Night, a Korean romantic drama anthology from director Kim Jong-kwan, and the actor Kim Min-ha hosts the opening ceremony. The festival says it received A-list accreditation from FIAPF earlier this year. There is a tribute programme for the actor Ahn Sung-ki, who died in January, and Michelle Yeoh is due to receive the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award. For scale: the first edition, in 1996, showed 173 films from 31 countries.

The verdict

People who search for K orean movies like Parasite are usually asking for the next film that will do to them what that one did. Which film that is depends on the part you felt. If you cannot decide, begin with Memories of Murder, which explains most of what came after.

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