I was born in the early 2000s, and I just had the realization that I haven’t watched any of the classic Bollywood movies, the ones you see edits, and memes about.

I would love to watch them and I’d like to know what are some of the must-watch movies from that time? The ones that have made a cultural impact and are talked about still.

I grew up being watching Bollywood but back then I never paid a lot of attention to the actors, time period (I was a child) or even the details. I just used to consume it anyhowly. I don't remember a lot but I wanted to know what the most impactful/game changing films of the 90s were? It could be culturally (political, pop-cutlure ,etc), how bollywood worked, a change in trends or type of actors or films favored in the industry (I heard SRK ended the era of the likes of Sunny Deol). I am huge nerd for vintage stuff and love to see the context and history behind it. Movies from other industries that affected to overall movie industry or bollywood are welcome too, like how south Indian films recently had an impact on bollywood.

So far, I have only watched Taal recently but want to watch more.

People often go by box office numbers to judge a film's success but factors like inflation, geographical reach, and means of consumption (single screen or multiplex) can greatly alter results.

Footfalls offer an intriguing insight into the cinema history. For example, a film like Biwi No. 1 made more money than Khalnayak, but Khalnayak had more footfalls than Biwi No. 1. BN1's box office numbers are higher because it benefited from higher inflation in 1999, but Khalnayak was the bigger film. Another example is 1990's Dil and Ghayal. Both films were released in 1990 and clashed with each other, even though Dil earned slightly better than Ghayal, Dil's box office numbers benefited from the urban appeal of the film due to which it was watched more in Tier 1 cities selling tickets at a higher price. Whereas Ghayal dominated the Tier 2 and Tier 3 audiences, it was watched by more people and hence is higher on the list.

I have also included the Cast/Starring section in the table to represent which actors dominated the period. Actors with most appearances in the list:

• SRK: 4

• Madhuri Dixit: 4

• Salman Khan: 3

• Karishma Kapoor: 3

• Amrish Puri: 3

• Sunny Deol: 2

• Aamir Khan: 2

• Kajol: 2

I am working on another list about Actors with most footfalls in 1990s. Then I will move on to other decades.

Source: Box Office India archives