It began with a developmentally disabled man, an alien named Jadoo and a beam of sunlight. Two films later it had become Krrish, what is widely regarded as Indian cinema's first superhero film series.
The Krrish franchise is an Indian Hindi-language media franchise of superhero action thriller films, television series, comics and video games, directed, produced and written by Rakesh Roshan. It is considered Indian cinema's first such film series, and all three films star his son Hrithik Roshan. The story spans three generations of the Mehra family.
The saga opened with Koi... Mil Gaya, a 2003 science fiction drama directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan, starring Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta and Rekha. Rohit Mehra, a developmentally disabled man, contacts an extraterrestrial being later named Jadoo using his late father's supercomputer. Jadoo, whose powers are derived from sunlight, enhances Rohit's mind and physical abilities to superhuman levels. The film was the first instalment of the Krrish franchise.
Roshan conceived Koi... Mil Gaya after Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (2000), wanting a child-centric, out-of-the-box film, and announced it at the 2nd IIFA Awards in June 2001. American visual-effects artists spent significant sums on the film's effects. Released on 8 August 2003 on a budget of around 25 crore rupees, it grossed 82.33 crore rupees worldwide and was among the highest-earning Indian films of the year. It won three National Film Awards and, at the 49th Filmfare Awards, five honours including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor.
The 2006 sequel, Krrish, advanced to the next generation. Krishna Mehra, Rohit's son and also played by Hrithik Roshan, is born with the same powers and is raised in a remote mountain village by his grandmother Sonia to conceal his abilities. After saving children from a circus fire, he adopts a mask and the superhero identity Krrish, and travels to Singapore where he confronts the villainous Dr. Siddhant Arya, played by Naseeruddin Shah. Priyanka Chopra played Priya, his love interest.
Krrish 3, released in 2013, expanded the scale further. Krishna, now married to Priya, battles Kaal, played by Vivek Oberoi, a telepathic villain who creates human-animal mutants including the shape-shifting Kaya, played by Kangana Ranaut. The film weaves the family's lineage tightly together, revealing Kaal's hidden connection to Rohit and ending with the next Mehra child showing signs of extraordinary power.
As a series, Krrish has been commercially substantial. The franchise page lists a combined budget of 165 crore rupees across the three films and a combined box office of 602.25 crore rupees, making it one of the highest-grossing film series in India. It also spawned an animated television series, Kid Krrish, on Cartoon Network India in 2013, a spin-off titled J Bole Toh Jadoo on Nickelodeon, and comics produced with Graphic India and Hungama.
A fourth film has been long in the works. Rakesh Roshan announced Krrish 4 in September 2016, and in 2017 it was reported that Hrithik Roshan would play a dual role as both protagonist and antagonist. In March 2025 Rakesh Roshan announced that Hrithik would make his directorial debut with Krrish 4, and in September 2025 he said pre-production would begin in early 2026 and filming by mid-2026, aiming for a 2027 release.
Reported from the English Wikipedia entries on the Krrish franchise and Koi... Mil Gaya.
