A scene from the movie Caravan

When we talk about those films of Indian cinema that were liked abroad, the name of recent blockbuster films like RRR and Dangal immediately comes to mind. Which made a lot of noise in America and China. Some will also point to Shah Rukh Khan's stellar record with his films in Europe and the Middle East. Yet not all of these films achieved the record that a film in the 1980s had achieved. No other film even came close to breaking the record.

India's biggest foreign hit with 30 crore tickets sold

Jeetendra and Asha Parekh's Caravan was released in India in 1971. The film was successful, earning Rs 3.6 crore at the box office and the film was declared a super hit. Eight years later, the film released in China and became an all-time blockbuster there and broke many records. The film sold 30 million tickets in China. In comparison, Aamir Khan's Dangal – which set records in the country in 2018 – sold 4 million tickets in China. Along with this, Caravan also surpassed Raj Kapoor's Awara as India's biggest foreign hit. Awara performed brilliantly in both China and the Soviet Union. More than 5 million tickets of this film were sold.

If the success and earnings of the caravan are seen according to today's ticket prices, then the figure can reach more than three thousand crores. While Dangal earned Rs 1300 crore overseas, Pathan and RRR both earned less than Rs 400 crore. None of this is even close to what the caravan has achieved.