Aryan Khan is second most popular Indian director in 2025; KJo, Rajamouli, Hirani, Bhansali, Vanga are not in IMDb list

Most Popular Indian Directors of 2025

As we approach the end of 2025, IMDb India released its list of Most Popular Indian Directors of the Year on social media platforms on Wednesday, December 3. While the list is dominated by those who have made the most talked-about films of the year, the only filmmaker to include a web series in the list is Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, who made his much-awaited debut in the Indian entertainment industry this year as the director of the Netflix show The Ba***ds of Bollywood. Aryan is second on the list.

Neeraj Ghaywan, whose film Hoimebound has been shortlisted as India’s official entry for the 2026 Oscars, is ranked 10th on this list. Laxman Utekar, whose Chhaava is the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year so far, and Dominic Arun, whose Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra is the highest-grossing Malayalam film so far, are the ninth and eighth most popular Indian directors of 2025, according to IMDb. This year, Anurag Basu, who directed Metro In Dino, secured the seventh position, while Sitaare Zameen Par director RS Prasanna took the sixth position.

Prithviraj Sukumaran, producer of L2: Empuraan, and Anurag Kashyap, producer of two-part crime epic Nishaanchi, are among the fifth and fourth most popular Indian directors of 2025. Lokesh Kanagaraj, whose Coolie is the highest-grossing Tamil film of the year, ranks third in this list. As discussed above, Aryan Khan comes in second. The most popular Indian director of 2025 is Mohit Suri, who brought love stories back to Indian cinema through Saiyaara.

Karan Johar, SS Rajamouli, Rajkumari Hirani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sandeep Reddy Vanga are not included in this list as they did not produce a film or web series this year.

“IMDb Top 10 Most Popular Indian Directors of 2025 list consists of filmmakers who have consistently topped the IMDb weekly rankings throughout 2025. These rankings are based on actual page views from over 250 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide,” the list’s excerpt reads.

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