₹400 crore budget, ₹75 crore spent on songs, box office haul just ₹131 crore: How Game Changer became 2025's first flop

How Ram Charan's Game Changer earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first box office bomb of 2025.

Game Changer was supposed to live up to its name. It was Shankar's grand Telugu debut, was bankrolled by Dil Raju, and starred Ram Charan in his first solo outing since RRR. The ingredients were all there for a box office success. Yet, the end result was rather underwhelming. Game Changer crash-landed, giving Shankar his second consecutive box office bomb and beginning 2025 on a rather gloomy note for the Indian film industry. (

Ram Charan and Kiara Advani in a still from Shankar's Game Changer.

Game Changer box office performance

Game Changer began with a bang, earning ₹51 crore net in all languages on its opening day. While marketed as a pan-India film with promotions all over India, the film's collections were anchored by the OG Telugu version. However, the film fell flat on day 2, earning just ₹21 crore, and then further on Sunday, managing under ₹16 crore. By the end of its run, Game Changer earned just ₹131 crore net in India, of which ₹89 crore came from the Telugu version.

For all the promotions in Delhi and Mumbai, the Hindi version of Game Changer managed just ₹32 crore across India. The film fared miserably in the Tamil territories too, despite it being director Shankar's home turf. The Tamil version of Game Changer earned a mere ₹8.30 crore in India.

The overseas collections of Game Changer were also rather dismal, with the film earning just over $3.5 million ( ₹30 crore). Its eventual worldwide box office collection after a tapering five-week run remained ₹186 crore. For a pan-India release mounted on a massive budget, it is underwhelming, to say the least.

Where Game Changer went wrong

Game Changer was reportedly mounted on a budget of ₹400 crore. Some reports claimed the figure was higher, even mentioning ₹500 crore. However, sources say that the ₹400-crore figure is more accurate, even though the exact budget is a closely guarded secret. What is not secretive is that the makers did spend an extravagant amount on the songs. The film's producer, Dil Raju, confirmed the astronomical amount spent on the songs at the film's trailer launch press meet in Mumbai in January. "There are five songs in the film, and the budget is ₹75 crore," he said, explaining the expenditure, “Each song has taken 10-12 days to shoot with massive sets and hundreds of background dancers.”

The audience consensus was that the emphasis on spectacle in Game Changer drowned the substance. Shankar, known for weaving the grand scale with impactful storytelling, was found lacking in the latter department. This led to many in the audience disconnecting from the film. The bad reviews seemed to agree with this take. The bottom line remained that the makers tried to manufacture a pan-India hit with a beautiful facade. But the foundations remained weak, and that sank the whole building as the first tremor hit.