Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan became the first Hindi film to enter the hallowed Rs 500 crore (nett) club in India with its Hindi version, according to Yash Raj Films (YRF).

Pathaan is a part of YRF chief Aditya Chopra’s ambitious spy universe and has gone on to become the highest-grossing film of the spy franchise, which also includes blockbusters like Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger and Tiger Zinda Hai, and Hrithik Roshan’s War.

“I’m thrilled that we have managed to tick all the boxes with Pathaan — we have contributed to the Indian film industry at the start of this year by delivering Rs 1000+ crore gross worldwide and Rs 500 crore nett domestic collections for this Hindi film,” said Yash Raj Films CEO Akshaye Widhani.

“As a studio, we aspire to make the best films and hopefully leave audiences with a memory they would cherish for a lifetime. I’m glad Pathaan has become that film for people,” he added.

Widhani also said Pathaan’s success had humbled them and determined them to come up with more hits in future. “We feel great responsibility to make the YRF spy universe even better and extremely varied with each film. We want to give audiences different engaging stories that would widen the YRF spy universe in the years to come,” he added.

Pathaan, directed by Siddharth Anand, previously became the highest-grossing Hindi film worldwide with Rs 1,003 crore collections. It has now recorded USD 46.06 million in the overseas territories alone, while nett collections in India stand at Rs 518.06 crore (Hindi - Rs 500.05 crore, dubbed - Rs 18.01 crore). The movie’s total worldwide gross collection is now a whopping Rs 1,003 crore (India gross: Rs 625 crore, overseas: Rs 378 crore).

The action thriller, also starring Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, Ashutosh Rana and Dimple Kapadia, arrived in cinemas in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on January 25.