Indian was a massive hit. It grossed never seen before numbers in its Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi versions. The movie grossed over 60 crores worldwide and was Kollywood's highest grosser until Chandramukhi released 9 years later.

The film was the first to earn a distributor share over 10 crores in Tamil Nadu. Indian also grossed a huge 16 crores in its Hindi version. It was the highest grossing South Indian film in Hindi until Enthiran released 14 years later. The movie faired very well in Andhra/TS too grossing 11.75 crores. Indian was the highest grossing Tamil film in Kerala until Vijay's Kushi released in 2001. It was also the highest grossing Tamil film in Karnataka until Rajini's Chandramukhi released in 2005. With all this, Indian was undisputedly South India's first pan-India hit.

Indian was also the highest grossing Tamil film abroad until Muthu released in Japan in 1998. The film grossed USD$1.77M abroad with USD$750K from Malaysia. It ran in Toronto, Canada for over a month with sold out shows in its 3rd weekend.