We need to talk about Bollywood. Not as a source of magnificently uplifting movies with great songs and flamboyant costumes – that’s a given – but as a term. For the purposes of this list, we’re using it as a catch-all for the full multitude of Indian film industries. This, we know, will upset purists who will point out – correctly – that it should only be used to refer to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai. But rightly or wrongly, the term has come to represent Indian cinema more broadly, taking in everything from the Telugu-language films of Hyderabad to the very un-Bollywood work of Kolkata great Satyajit Ray. It’s an imperfect framework to examine a complex, multilingual film culture, but it’s a great way to introduce a tonne of worthy movies to dive into.

Which brings us to our next dilemma, because choosing a definitive ‘best-of’ list is an impossible task. Our top 100 is a bulging, wildly varied collection of our favourites: there are rom-coms like Jab We Met, sports dramas like Chak De! India and Lagaan, ‘curry westerns’ like Sholay, black-and-white tragedies like Pyaasa and Awaara, coming-of-age classics like Dil Chahta Hai and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, and art-house staples like Ardh Satya and Ankur. Our picks are as diverse as our experts, ranging from UK-based Bollywood radio jockey Anushka Arora and Indian journalist-turned-screenwriter Aniruddha Guha. Our contributors also include writer-director Varun Grover who penned the lyrics for Gangs of Wasseypur (featured below in our list). 

Boasting both larger-than-life blockbusters and grounded socio-realist dramas, this list bears testimony to the fact that Bollywood is more than song-and-dance cinema. And whether you’re looking for musicals, action, comedy or romance, there’s something here for you.