Chhaava

After the death of Shivaji Maharaj, Sambhaji ascends to the Maratha throne in 1681 and faces the full weight of the Mughal empire under Aurangzeb, who moves his court to the Deccan to crush Maratha resistance. Over the following years Sambhaji leads a series of campaigns to hold the kingdom together, supported by his wife Yesubai and poet-advisor Kavi Kalash. The film traces this prolonged war up to his capture at Sangameshwar and his execution in 1689.

Chhaava was directed by Laxman Utekar and produced by Dinesh Vijan under the Maddock Films banner, adapting Shivaji Sawant’s Marathi novel about Sambhaji Maharaj. The screenplay was written by Utekar with Rishi Virmani, Kaustubh Savarkar, Unman Bankar and Omkar Mahajan. Saurabh Goswami handled the cinematography and Manish Pradhan edited the film. Made on a reported budget in the ₹90–130 crore range, it runs 161 minutes.

The soundtrack and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil and Kshitij Patwardhan. The album includes the tracks “Jaane Tu”, “Aaya Re Toofan” and the title track “Chhaava”.

Chhaava released in theatres on 14 February 2025 and grossed around ₹800 crore worldwide, with an India net of roughly ₹600 crore, making it the highest-grossing Indian film of 2025 and the biggest release of Vicky Kaushal’s career. Critical reception was mixed: reviewers widely praised Kaushal’s central performance and the scale of the battle sequences, while several felt the film leaned on spectacle and mass appeal at the expense of narrative depth.