By the numbers
- Films: 29 since 1996; 9 in the last ten years (cameos and guest appearances not counted)
- Recent films with figures: 7 of 10 since 2015
- Hits: 1 (0 blockbusters), average: 2, flops: 4 – a hit rate of 14%
- Average return: 1.14x budget; best: They Call Him OG 1.81x; weakest: Hari Hara Veera Mallu 0.46x
- Biggest hit: They Call Him OG (2025), ₹361 cr
- Trend: last five films 1.10x on average, the five before 1.25x (down)
- Born: 1971-09-02
- Awards on Wikidata: 1
| Year | Film | Budget | Box office | Return | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Ustaad Bhagat Singh | ₹150 cr | ₹95 cr | 0.63x | Flop |
| 2025 | They Call Him OG | ₹200 cr | ₹361 cr | 1.81x | Hit |
| 2025 | Hari Hara Veera Mallu | ₹250 cr | ₹114 cr | 0.46x | Flop |
| 2023 | Bro | – | ₹100 cr | – | No figures |
| 2022 | Bheemla Nayak | ₹75 cr | – | – | No figures |
| 2021 | Vakeel Saab | ₹80 cr | ₹138 cr | 1.72x | Average |
| 2018 | Agnyaathavaasi | ₹70 cr | ₹60 cr | 0.86x | Flop |
| 2017 | Katamarayudu | ₹70 cr | ₹98 cr | 1.39x | Average |
| 2016 | Sardaar Gabbar Singh | ₹75 cr | ₹84 cr | 1.12x | Flop |
| 2015 | Gopala Gopala | – | – | – | No figures |
What the numbers say
Pawan Kalyan’s scorecard is built on 29 films, from a 1996 debut to 2026. The usable dataset, however, is narrow: only 7 of those films carry budget and gross figures in the table above, with a tracked total of 1049.7 crore gross. Across that data, the record is one hit, two averages and four flops—no blockbusters—at a hit rate of 14 and an average multiple of 1.14.
The actor has one award, and 9 films in the last decade. That average multiple of 1.14 means the tracked films have only just recovered their budgets, and the average is pulled upward almost entirely by a single title.
The hits and the misses
The biggest hit and the best multiple are the same film: They Call Him OG (2025), with a 200.0 crore budget, a 361.24 crore gross and a 1.81 multiple, the only Hit verdict in the dataset. That one film is the entire hit side of the ledger.
The weakest return is Hari Hara Veera Mallu (2025), with a 250.0 crore budget, a 113.85 crore gross and a 0.46 multiple. Ustaad Bhagat Singh (2026) is next among the misses at 0.63 against a 150.0 crore budget. The two Average verdicts are Katamarayudu at 1.39 and Vakeel Saab at 1.72.
The trend
The recent five films with usable averages come in at 1.1, down from 1.25 in the five before. In the table above, the recent stretch is uneven: They Call Him OG overperforms at 1.81, but Hari Hara Veera Mallu at 0.46 and Ustaad Bhagat Singh at 0.63 pull the average down. For a 29-film career, the direction is not toward consistency; it is toward bigger swings and softer floors.
What it means for the next film and the industry
The next release has to answer a hard commercial question: if the only Hit in the dataset is They Call Him OG at 1.81, can another film carry a budget that justifies itself? Two 2025 titles show the split—a 200.0 crore film returning 1.81, and a 250.0 crore film returning 0.46. A 14 hit rate and a 1.14 average multiple argue for pricing the next film as if the audience is selective, not as if the star name guarantees recovery.
For the industry, the caution is cost control. A 250.0 crore outlay returning 113.85 crore is a 0.46 multiple; a 150.0 crore outlay returning 95.0 crore is a 0.63 multiple. The grosses show the audience is still there, but Telugu cinema can only turn that into a healthy business when the budget leaves room for a real multiple.
Figures: Pawan Kalyan filmography on Wikipedia and each film’s page, read on 04 October 2026.
