Top 10 Best Bollywood Movies of All Time

This “curry western”, directed by Ramesh Sippy and written by the legendary duo Salim-Javed, combines elements of The Magnificent Seven with typical Indian themes of honor, revenge and friendship. The film follows two petty thieves, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), who are hired by a retired police officer to catch the sadistic bandit Gabbar Singh. Gabbar Singh, played by Amjad Khan, became the most iconic villain in Indian film history – his dialogues are quoted to this day.

Mughal-e-Azam took fourteen years to make, and the result was the most expensive epic India had ever seen. The film tells the story of sixteenth-century Mughal prince Salim who falls in love with a court dancer, against the wishes of his powerful father, Emperor Akbar. The confrontation between father and son escalates into open war. Director K. Asif filmed one famous scene in Technicolor – the only color segment in an otherwise black and white film – which was a technical sensation at the time. The sets, costumes and musical numbers remain unmatched in grandeur to this day. In 2004, the film was fully colorized and re-released, allowing a new generation to experience the epic.

Rajkumar Hirani's satirical comedy about the Indian education system not only became India's highest-grossing film to that point, but touched a nerve that resonated far beyond the country's borders. The film follows three engineering students and their resistance against a system that drives students to suicide due to extreme pressure to perform. The message – that passion is more important than grades, that the system fails when it stifles creativity – resonated across Asia, where similar education problems exist. 3 Idiots became a huge success in China and Japan, and is often cited as the film that first introduced Western audiences to modern Bollywood.

DDLJ, as the film is universally abbreviated, has been running continuously at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir theater since 1995 – a record of over twenty-five years. The romantic comedy about two Indian expats who fall in love during a European train journey defined Bollywood romance for an entire generation. Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol became Bollywood's most loved couple thanks to this film. The film feels both modern and deeply conservative: the hero wins the girl by convincing the father, not by rebelling against him. That formula turned out to be timeless.

Lagaan is one of only three Indian films ever nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Set in 1893, the film follows a group of villagers who are challenged by the British colonial rulers to a cricket match: if they win, they don't have to pay taxes; if they lose, the tax is tripled. Aamir Khan produced and starred in this sports drama that lasts almost four hours but never gets boring. The match itself takes up the last hour of the film and is so compellingly filmed that even viewers who understand nothing about cricket will be on the edge of their seats.

India's answer to Gone with the Wind, and the first Indian film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (where it lost to Fellini's Le notti di Cabiria). Mother India tells the story of a poor village woman, Radha, who guides her family through famine, floods and personal loss. Nargis, in the lead role, became a national icon after this film – her character embodies the self-sacrificing Indian mother who endures everything. The film ends with a moral dilemma that was shocking at the time: Radha must choose between her son and her honor.

The highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, with worldwide grosses of more than $300 million. Dangal is based on the true story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become international champions in a sport that was considered exclusively male in India. Aamir Khan underwent a physical transformation for the role – he gained 50 pounds to play the older Phogat, then trained to portray the younger version. The film became a phenomenon in China, where it grossed more than $190 million, and is credited with opening the Chinese market to Bollywood.

Guru Dutt's masterpiece about a frustrated poet rejected by society is often regarded by critics as the most artistically perfect Bollywood film. The film combines noir aesthetics with Urdu poetry and music that is inextricably woven into the images. Dutt himself directed and played the lead role of Vijay, a poet whose work is only appreciated after he is believed dead. The film is steeped in melancholy and social criticism – Vijay's most famous song asks why a country so proud of its civilization cares so little about its poor and its artists.

The film that defined the modern Bollywood generation. Farhan Akhtar's directorial debut follows three friends from the Bombay upper class in their mid-twenties, each with a different approach to love and relationships. The film broke with conventions: no village romance, no family dramas, but young professionals in designer clothes talking about art and emotions. Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna played the three friends. The film introduced a visual style that would influence Bollywood for years to come – cool colours, Sydney as an exotic location, fashion that seemed straight out of Western magazines. Dil Chahta Hai became the film with which urban Indians finally recognized themselves on the big screen.

Aamir Khan's directorial debut about an eight-year-old boy with dyslexia, who is forgotten by the school system. Until an art teacher discovers his talents. The film was a commercial risk – children's films rarely do well in India – but became an emotional sensation that forced parents and educators to rethink how they deal with learning disabilities. Darsheel Safary, as the young Ishaan, delivered one of the most moving child performances in Indian film history. Khan himself played the art teacher who sees Ishaan's hidden potential. The film includes a sequence discussing famous dyslexics such as Einstein, Edison and Leonardo da Vinci – a message that felt revolutionary in India, with its extreme emphasis on academic achievement.