Highest-Grossing Nepali Films of All Time (Box-Office Ranking)

The highest-grossing Nepali film of all time is Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi, a 2024 (2081 BS) musical drama directed by Saroj Poudel and led by Bijay Baral. Released on 31 October 2024 during Tihar, it collected roughly Rs 46.87 crore (Rs 468.7 million) from Nepal cinemas and more than Rs 70 crore worldwide, figures no other domestic film has approached. It became the first Nepali film to cross both the Rs 30 crore and Rs 40 crore marks in the home market, and did so in under two weeks of release.

Its rise reset the entire leaderboard. For most of the previous decade the crown belonged to the Kabaddi and Chhakka Panja comedy franchises, and the outright domestic record had been held since 2022 by Kabaddi 4: The Final Match at about Rs 21.40 crore. Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi more than doubled that total, and internationally it also became the first Nepali film to earn over Rs 50 crore worldwide, ending the long reign that the Indian blockbuster Baahubali 2 had held atop Nepal's overall box office.

This page compiles a ranked table of the top Nepali films by their reported gross earnings in Nepal, along with each film's year, director and lead cast. It is one page in a maintained ranking that is refreshed after major releases, because Nepali box-office records now change quickly: the Rs 15-20 crore band that was rare a few years ago is being reached almost every festival season.

The table below ranks Nepali (domestic-production) films by their reported gross collection inside Nepal, drawn primarily from the Film Development Board's box-office honours and the figures compiled on Wikipedia's List of highest-grossing films in Nepal from trade outlets such as LensNepal. These are gross ticket sales, not inflation-adjusted, so older hits are at a structural disadvantage against recent releases with higher ticket prices and more screens.

Nine films have now crossed Rs 15 crore in Nepal, and the Kabaddi and Chhakka Panja series together account for a large share of the all-time top twenty. Very recent 2025-2026 entries are provisional and can move as final tallies are certified, so treat the exact rupee figures as close estimates rather than audited totals.

Nepal has no single, mandatory, real-time box-office tracking authority equivalent to a national admissions system, so collection figures are compiled from several places: producers' own disclosures, distributor tallies, the Film Development Board (FDB) box-office honours announced at ceremonies, and trade media such as LensNepal, Ratopati and Rising Nepal. Because these sources count in slightly different ways, the same film can be quoted with figures that vary by a crore or more.

The single most important distinction is domestic versus worldwide gross. Domestic gross counts only tickets sold inside Nepal, while worldwide gross adds overseas markets such as Australia, the United States, the Gulf, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, where the Nepali diaspora sustains a large audience. Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi, for example, earned about Rs 46.87 crore in Nepal but more than Rs 70 crore worldwide once overseas markets are included. Rankings must therefore state which basis they use; this page ranks by Nepal gross for consistency.

A second caveat is inflation. All the figures here are nominal gross collections, not adjusted for the rising price of a cinema ticket over time. On an inflation-adjusted or footfall basis, some pre-2015 hits and classic-era films would rank far higher than their raw rupee totals suggest. For this reason a nominal 'highest-grossing' list should be read as a record of headline earnings, not a definitive measure of cultural reach or audience size.

Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi is a grounded, music-centred drama that follows a Gandarbha (traditional folk musician) family, anchored by a widely praised performance from Bijay Baral and a soundtrack tied to singer-actor Prakash Saput. Made on a modest reported budget of roughly Rs 1.3 crore, it is one of the most profitable Nepali films ever relative to cost, turning an intimate, culturally rooted story into a mass-audience event.

The film's box-office run was historically fast. It crossed roughly Rs 34 crore in Nepal within about 17 days and went on to become the first domestic title past the Rs 30 crore and Rs 40 crore thresholds, finishing near Rs 46.87 crore at home. Worldwide it exceeded Rs 70 crore, making it the first Nepali film to cross Rs 50 crore globally and, by most tallies, the highest-earning Nepali film internationally as well.

Its success is often read as evidence that authentic, well-crafted local stories can outperform star-driven comedies at the Nepali box office. Coming after a run of franchise sequels, Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi showed that word-of-mouth around a socially resonant subject and strong music could sustain long theatrical legs both in Nepal and across diaspora markets.

Before 2024, the domestic record belonged to Kabaddi 4: The Final Match, released on 27 May 2022 and directed by Ram Babu Gurung. The fourth entry in the beloved Kabaddi series, set in rural Mustang and led by Dayahang Rai, Saugat Malla, Miruna Magar and Buddhi Tamang, it collected about Rs 21.40 crore in Nepal and posted what was then the biggest opening day in the country. For roughly two years it stood as the highest-grossing Nepali film ever made.

Kabaddi 4 was the climax of a franchise era that dominated the 2015-2024 box office. The Kabaddi series (from Kabaddi in 2013 through Kabaddi Kabaddi and Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi) and Deepak Raj Giri's Chhakka Panja comedies were the reliable blockbusters of the period. Chhakka Panja (2016) grossed about Rs 16.10 crore, and its sequels Chhakka Panja 2, Chhakka Panja 4 and Chhakka Panja 5 all rank inside the all-time top twenty, making it the most commercially durable brand in Nepali cinema.

These franchises established the template that recent record-breakers built on: recognisable ensemble casts, festival-timed releases around Dashain and Tihar, coordinated overseas distribution, and heavy social-media marketing. The scale they normalised is what allowed later films to leap into the Rs 15-20 crore range and, eventually, for Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi to redefine the ceiling entirely.

The years 2023 and 2024 produced an unusual cluster of high earners beyond the record-holder. 12 Gaun (2024), an action drama written, directed by and starring Biraj Bhatta and released for Dashain, collected about Rs 19.93 crore in Nepal and ranks as one of the highest domestic grossers of all time, with reports of an even larger worldwide total once overseas earnings are counted.

Two 2023 releases showed the range of the market. Chhakka Panja 4, directed by Hem Raj B.C. and released on 3 March 2023, earned about Rs 17.53 crore as a mainstream comedy franchise entry. Jaari, the acclaimed debut feature of writer-director Upendra Subba starring Dayahang Rai and Miruna Magar, took a very different, culturally specific route through the Limbu custom of jari and still grossed about Rs 17.48 crore while winning strong critical praise, proving that regional, language-rooted storytelling can be commercially potent.

The comedy Mahajatra (2024), directed by Pradip Bhattarai and starring Hari Bansha Acharya, Bipin Karki and Barsha Raut as a sequel to Jatrai Jatra, added roughly Rs 15.68 crore. Together with Chhakka Panja 5 and later 2025 titles such as Paran, this wave lifted nine Nepali films above the Rs 15 crore mark and pushed the industry's commercial expectations to a new level heading into 2025 and 2026.

The current top of the Nepali box office is defined by a handful of milestones, most of them set by Purna Bahadur Ko Sarangi: the first Nepali film past Rs 30 crore, Rs 40 crore domestically, and Rs 50 crore worldwide, and the first domestic production to overtake the long-standing overall record held in Nepal by an Indian import. Kabaddi 4 remains the benchmark of the previous era, and the Chhakka Panja series remains the most-represented franchise on the all-time list.

Readers should keep three caveats in mind. First, the figures are nominal gross, not inflation-adjusted, so cross-decade comparisons favour newer films. Second, domestic and worldwide totals are frequently mixed up in headlines, which inflates apparent records; this list uses Nepal gross. Third, because there is no single audited national tracker, exact rupee amounts for recent releases can be revised, and different reputable outlets may quote slightly different totals for the same film.

This ranking is maintained and updated after major releases and awards-season certifications. When a new film enters the top tier or the Film Development Board publishes revised honours, the table above is refreshed so that queries like 'highest grossing Nepali movie' return a current, sourced answer rather than an outdated one.