Aamir Khan’s Dangal, based on the inspiring story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, has become the first top- grossing non-Hollywood film.

The film has grossed USD 117 million at the box office, according to Maoyan, a popular ticketing website in China.
Data which has been made available by the EntGroup, a leading entertainment consultancy group said that the ticket sales have crossed 806 million yuan (USD 117 million) for the film since it released in China on May 5.
With this, Dangal, whose theme of women empowerment appears to have resonated with the audience in China, has become the highest performing non-Hollywood foreign film in the country.
The film broke the record of Your Name, a Japanese fantasy drama, which netted 577 million yuan (USD 84 million) at the box office last year.

In Dangal, Aamir Khan played Haryanvi wrestler Mahavir Phogat as he defied odds and the profound notions of a patriarchal society to train his daughters – Geeta and Babita, into wrestlers. Dangal, the most critically and commercially successful film of 2016, made over Rs 300 crores at the box office. The 52-year-old actor also won the Dinanath Mangeshkar Award for the film.

Dangal created a new record by earning USD 15 million on Saturday alone, Prasad Shetty, partner of Strategic Alliance, a Chinese firm promoting Indian films in China, told news agency PTI.

The film continues to run in about 7000 screens in China and has become as popular as Raj Kapoor’s Awara in 1950.
Aamir gained popularity in China after the Chinese version of 3 Idiots was a massive success in the country followed by PK. He toured Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu ahead of the release of the film. A number of top Chinese film stars also wrote in their widely-read blogs about the movie, Mr Shetty said.

Aamir has become equally popular on China’s microblog Weibo where he has 6.55 lakh followers. He has surpassed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to become the Indian with the largest following on Weibo.