10 Hindi Films Based On Real Life Stories For Your Watchlist

Hindi Films On Real Life Stories: Ever been so tired of just mindlessly scrolling through streaming platforms and having no idea what to watch? Reality Tv shows can only tickle your need for entertainment to a certain level. What about those days when you want to watch something that adds value in a small capacity?

Stories of real-life brought to you including all the cinematic effects are just what you need on those days you want to watch something meaningful and informative. The best way to sit back and relax while you also learn something new about a certain person, an incident that happened around the world, on your tv screens. Bollywood has brought forth to screens, many untold stories of real-life events and heroes, the stories that needed to be told.

With newer movies like Gangubai Kathiawadi, Runway 34, Bell Bottom, and Aamir Khan's next Laal Singh Chadda hitting the screens real soon, let's take a look at the movies based on real-life stories that have been widely watched and loved by the audience.  Here we have curated a list of 10 Hindi films on real-life stories, for you to watch on your next movie binge weekend.

10 Hindi Films On Real Life Stories:

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013):

Farhan Akhtar plays the role of Milkha Singh, best known as the Flying Sikh. This movie is available to watch on Disney+Hotstar. This Bollywood biopic chronicles the life of athlete Milkha Singh, who was a champion of the Commonwealth Games and two-times 400m champion of the Asian Games. This movie also features a stellar cast with Sonam Kapoor, Divya Dutta, Meesha Shafi, Pavan Malhotra, Yograj Singh, Art Malik, and Prakash Raj. This movie is based on the book The Race of My Life, an autobiography written by Singh himself with the help of his daughter, Sonia Sanwalka, and is very close to reality.

Mary Kom (2014):

Priyanka Chopra, in this biopic brings to life the character of MC Mary Kom known as Magnificient Mary, an Indian boxer with many accolades to her credit. Mary Kom is a global icon, feminist, and boxer, and her life is beautifully portrayed in this movie. It follows how this boxer breaks herself free from the chains of patriarchy by going against her conservative father who was initially not in favor of her passion for boxing. Through her performance, Chopra also shatters the stereotype of a woman’s career seeing closure after she has children. The film won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Chopra also won the Screen Award and the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. It is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Airlift (2016):

An action thriller film directed by Raja Krishna Menon, based on the real-life story of Malayali businessman Mathunny Mathews and Mary Mathews, portrayed by Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur. Akshay Kumar is known to bring forth untold real-life stories through Bollywood, such as Bellbottom, JollyLLB, etc This a Kuwait-based businessman, turned out a real-life hero as he plays a big role in carrying out the evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq which lead to the beginning of the Gulf War. This movie follows the struggles of Indians stuck in the Gulf and how they were successfully brought back to India by Airlifting amidst the crisis. This is available to watch on Voot. 

Neerja (2016):

This movie honors the life of flight purser and air-hostess Neerja Bhanot who was killed in an airplane hijack of flight Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi while she save the lives of people from different nationalities. This movie is available to watch on Disney +Hotstar.  The journey of a humble, simple girl who got married at a very young age and later on left her husband due to domestic abuse The trauma did not slow her down and she chose what she always wanted to do. She became a flight attendant and simultaneously pursued a modeling interest. This tearjerker features Sonam Kapoor, Yogendra Tiku, and Shabana Azmi in the main roles. The movie won two awards at the National Film Awards including Best Feature Film in Hindi and Special Mention for Sonam Kapoor who played Neerja Bhanot.

Dangal (2016):

Available to watch on Netflix, This biographical film follows the real-life story of Mahavir Singh Phogat and his dream of winning a gold medal for India in wrestling. He envisions his dream through his daughters Geeta and Babita and trains them in the sport despite the criticism from the villagers. In real life, the two sisters went on to become India’s leading wrestling champions bashing the existing social stigma that girls can’t play sports as professionals, also serving as an inspiration for many others. Dangal features actors Aamir Khan, Sanya Malhotra, Sakshi Tanwar, and Fatima Sana Shaikh in the lead roles

M S Dhoni- The Untold Story (2016):

This is a biographical sports drama based on the life of captain cool MS Dhoni, this movie is a must-watch for all cricket fanatics. This movie depicting the journey of a young boy from Ranchi to becoming a world-renowned cricketer is equal parts entertaining and inspiring. This movie brings to you, the never seen before days in the life of our most loved captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput shines through, as Dhoni with his impeccable acting skills in this movie. Written and directed by Neeraj Pandey, this film also features Disha Patani, Kiara Advani, Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla, and many others. This is available to watch on Disney+Hotstar.

Raazi (2018):

Based on the book 'Calling Sehmat' this film follows the life of Sehmat portrayed by Alia Bhatt, a Kashmiri young girl, who is persuaded by her patriotic father to marry a Pakistani army soldier, the son of a friend who is himself a high-ranking Pakistani army general. His plan is to infiltrate the Pakistani army household and use Sehmat as a spy for the Indian Defence. Sehmat not only gains the trust of her new family and friends, but she also begins to gather crucial information and succeeds in completing her task. This movie emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian films featuring a female lead. Raazi at the 64th Filmfare Awards, won five awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress for Alia Bhatt out of the 15 nominations it received. It is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Uri-The Surgical Strike (2019):

A semi-fictional account of the true events of the 2016 Uri attack and India's retaliation to the same, Vicky Kaushal tells the story of Major Vihaan Singh Shergill of the Para Special Forces, who led India in its surgical strike. The film also features  Yami Gautam, Mohit Raina, Kirti Kulhari, and Paresh Rawal and marks the directorial debut of Aditya Dhar. The film is divided into five chapters, taking into account the events that lead to the surgical strike, and the places the events took place in The Seven Sisters (North-east India), An Unsettling Peace (New Delhi, India), Bleed India with Thousand Cuts (Uri, Jammu Kashmir, India), Naya Hindustan (New India) (New Delhi, India) and The Surgical Strike (AJK Administrative Territory, Pakistan). This movie is available on Zee5.

Gully Boy (2019):

This film follows the life of two rappers, from rags to riches, Divine and Naezy. Gully Boy, directed by Zoya Akhtar won the Best Asian Film Award and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), along with a record of 13 Filmfare awards in various categories. It also features real-life rappers, Kr$na, Brodha V, Rajakumari, Divine, Chaitnya Sharma, and Dee MC. The unconventional lives of two rappers from the Dharavi Slums of Mumbai, become their own, this movie talks about the ups and downs and struggles in the path of passion. This movie is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and features Ranveer Singh, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Alia Bhatt in pivotal roles.

Sardar Udham ( 2021):

A historical drama based on the life of Sardar Udham Singh, Shoojit Sircar does a wonderful job at bringing this story to life. Featuring Vicky Kaushal as the trailblazing hero Sardar Udham, this movie chronicles the life of Udham Singh, a freedom fighter who, in order to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar, assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London. This movie had a digital release on the streaming platform Amazon Prime Video, due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, and is available to watch on the same. Named 2021’s Best Hindi film with a social message by Forbes, this movie received wide critical acclaim and the actor was applauded for his acting.

Suggested Reading: From Dear Dad To Dangal: 5 Hindi Films That Showcased The Many Shades Of Fatherhood