In a recent interview, producer Sobhu Yarlagadda of 'Baahubali' fame said that the number of tickets sold by 'Baahubali 2' stood at 10 crore in number. This is huge even though the country's adult population is multiples of the number.
For perspective, 'RRR' and 'KGF2' couldn't manage to sell even half the number of tickets that 'Baahubali 2' did. This goes to show how big a phenomenon the Prabhas-Rajamouli movie was. Since it was a sequel, a costume drama and an action film rolled into one, the sensational numbers were expected.
'Sholay' sold a much higher number of tickets when it was released in the mid 1970s. The Amitabh Bachchan-Dharmendra movie sold 13 crore tickets over a period of two years. So, about four decades later, 'RRR' and 'KGF 2' was watched by a far lesser number of people although the adult population has grown significantly since then. The reason is that cinema theatres were the only source of entertainment back then. Even TV was yet to see proliferaton. In the current times, TV, OTT, and other avenues of entertainment exist.