The 100 best Bollywood movies:
The 100 best Bollywood movies
The best Hindi movies – picked by Bollywood experts – along with the best Bollywood songs, dances, actors and actresses
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Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
What does Bollywood mean to you? India, music, romance, song, drama, dance, comedy, action? All of the above…and more? Here at Time Out, we've already found the best comedy movies, romantic movies and horror films. Now we celebrate the best Bollywood movies: the films that have been entertaining audiences in India and across the globe for more than six decades.
To find the 100 best Bollywood movies ever made, we asked a select group of Indian, British and American Bollywood experts to share their favourite mainstream Hindi movies. Then we used their choices to refine our list of great Bollywood movies – films that feature actors and actresses adored by their fans and songs and dances often more famous than the films themselves.
If you want to know more about Bollywood, check out our beginner’s guide. And if you’re still wondering what Bollywood’s about, why not listen to superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who has a simple definition of what Bollywood is: ‘Poetic justice in two and a half hours.’ Enjoy!
Produced by Alex Plim. Edited by Dave Calhoun and Rahul Verma. Written by Aniruddha Guha, Anil Sinanan, Rahul Verma, with Anushka Arora, Varun Grover, Shai Hussain, Ashanti Omkar and Beth Watkins
Former Member
Bobby (1973): NO: 100
Director: Raj Kapoor
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia
Genre: romance
Rich Hindu adolescent lad Raja (Kapoor) falls for Bobby (Kapadia), the 16-year-old granddaughter of his Goan Catholic nanny. When his snobbish parents object to their ‘friendship’, the young lovers decide to elope. This landmark film was a resounding success as Indian audiences had rarely ever seen teenage love expressed so sensuously on screen. The lead duo was believable too, and Kapadia became a national sensation with her mini-skirts and halter tops – an exposing bikini sequence was especially eye-grabbing. Laxmikant Pyarelal’s fresh soundtrack added to the appeal of this sweet film, with every song remaining a hit to this day.
The big scene When the top screen villain of the time Prem Chopra makes a cameo as himself.
Anil Sinanan
Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
NO: 99
Director: Sooraj R Barjatya
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Salman Khan, Tuffy
Genre: musical, romance
This 1990s blockbuster was directly responsible for audiences in India and elsewhere returning to Bollywood after a drastic drop in attendance in the 1980s due to video piracy and disillusionment with the crude action films of that era. Expect 14 songs, two weddings and a cremation. Nothing else really happens, yet its shameless lavish depiction of every celebration of a perfect north Indian family, and especially their elaborate colourful Hindu wedding rituals, sucked audiences into cinemas again and again. ‘HAHK’, as it is known, is the film which kickstarted the global awareness of modern Bollywood.
The big scene When wonder dog Tuffy has to decide whether to reunite the lovers or not.
Anil Sinanan
Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
NO: 98
Director: Ayan Mukherjee
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, Aditya Roy Kapoor
Genre: romance, comedy
This romantic comedy fits the Bollywood template perfectly: it boasts flamboyant colours, songs and dance and, more importantly, a big fat Indian wedding. It tells of two characters, Bunny (Kapoor) and Naina (Padukone), and their group of friends, who we first meet as they leave university before the film flashes forward to the end of their twenties. What made the film doubly successful was that its two stars were former lovers in real life, lending them a special chemistry onscreen.
The big scene After the big song ‘Balam Pichkari’, Bunny’s friends discover a letter congratulating him for landing a job in America. The four friends go their separate ways, leaving Naina’s love for Bunny unspoken.
Anushka Arora
Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
NO: 97
Director: Yash Chopra
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji
Genre: romance
Yash Chopra, Bollywood’s most successful and respected director, delivers a groundbreaking musical romance on an epic scale. Will the love that Indian Hindu Veer (Khan) and Pakistani Muslim Zaara (Zinta) feel for each other be able to overcome cross-cultural, emotional and physical borders? Chopra employs his trademark ‘chiffon sari in the Swiss Alps’ style while including progressive political and social messages about Indo-Pak unity, women’s rights, inept justice and hope for the future. The late composer Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar’s tunes achieve lyrical perfection. The result is an uplifting, colourful and soulful gem.
The big scene When the lovers reunite in a Pakistani courtroom after being apart for over two decades.
Anil Sinanan
Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
NO: 96
Director: Muzaffar Ali
Cast: Rekha, Farouque Shaikh, Naseeruddin Shah
Genre: drama
This is an adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s well-known 1899 novel about a Lucknow courtesan called Umrao Jaan (Rekha) who fights to escape the profession she was kidnapped into by following the path of true love. The carefully crafted period setting captivated viewers and critics on its release, and the story was told again in 2006, this time with Aishwarya Rai in the title role.
The big scene The song ‘Dil cheez kya hai’ sees Rekha, wearing a now-legendary red outfit, dancing with iconic choreography to the music of Khayyam.
Ashanti Omkar
Former Member
The 100 best Bollywood movies:
NO: 95
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi, Kishori Balal
Genre: drama, romance, musical
Pleasing audiences with a film so soon after the Oscar-nominated ‘Lagaan’ was always going to be tough for director Ashutosh Gowariker. And while ‘Swades’ underwhelmed those who compared it to ‘Lagaan’, it was still a solid film, and even better in some ways. Mohan Bhargav (Khan, in one of his best performances) is on a short break from his job at Nasa in the States and visits his hometown in India. The film focuses on Bhargav’s struggles with his country of birth, its inhabitants and his own identity.
The big scene A poor farmer explains the difficulties faced by him because of the oppressive nature of the people he deals with, which moves Bhargav to tears.
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