In India, there are scores of people who treat cricket as a religion and not a sport. But many movie enthusiasts are inclined towards spending their time watching a match of football. This is why some filmmakers have come up with brilliant Indian sports movies on football to keep the audience entertained. Let’s take a look at 9 Bollywood football movies that will give you an adrenaline rush.
9 Bollywood football movies for every soccer lover:
1. Hip Hip Hurray
- Cast: Raj Kiran, Deepti Naval, Shafi Inamdar
- Where to watch: Ultra Movie Parlour on YouTube
- Release date: January 1, 1984
With his directorial debut film Hip Hip Hurray, filmmaker Prakash Jha proved that he is here to stay. The 1984 Indian sports movie tells the tale of a computer engineer who takes up a temporary job as a sports instructor in a school but eventually falls in love with the sport. In the end, he leads the football team to victory.
2. The Goal
- Cast: Irrfan Khan, Abhinav Ben, Punya Darshan Gupta, Girish Mathur, Manoj Mitra
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
- Release date: December 30, 1999
In the 1999 Indian sports movie The Goal, Irrfan Khan plays the role of a football coach who is determined to find great players for his team. He comes across a lad who plays magically. However, the fraternity and the other players of the team don’t want him to play with them as he is the son of a thief. Since Khan believes in the caliber of the kid and wants him to play, he puts him in the opponent team to play against his own club.
3. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
- Cast: John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi, Shernaz Patel, Judan Ali, Boman Irani, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
- Where to watch: Netflix
- Release date: November 23, 2007
Vivek Agnihotri’s Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal tells the tale of the South Asian community in the UK who give their tears, sweat, and blood to save the Asian Southall Football Club. Once a reputable club, it now struggles to see professional footballers stepping foot inside their premises. The group of Asians now team up to save it after it’s close to being shut down forever. The movie premiered in the Tous Les Cinemas du Monde (World Cinema) section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
4. Sikandar
- Cast: Parzan Dastur, Ayesha Kapur, R. Madhavan, Sanjay Suri
- Where to watch: YouTube Movies
- Release date: August 21, 2009
All 14-year-old boy Sikandar Raza wanted was to cash in on his talent and play football. But because of the circumstances in Kashmir, where he lived with his uncle and aunt, he gets brainwashed into picking up a gun in this Indian sports movie titled Sikandar.
5. Tu Hai Mera Sunday
- Cast: Barun Sobti, Shahana Goswami, Vishal Malhotra, Avinash Tiwary, Rasika Dugal, Maanvi Gagroo, Nakul Bhalla, Jay Upadhyay, Shiv Kumar Subramaniam
- Where to watch: Disney+ Hotstar
- Release date: October 6, 2016
A group of friends find football relaxing and comforting when they want to escape from the hustle and bustle of city life and take some time out for themselves. In Tu Hai Mera Sunday, they set out to find a place where they can play the sport in Mumbai after the Sunday soccer game on the beach is canceled.
6. Penalty
- Cast: Lukram Smil, Kay Kay Menon, Manjot Singh, Shashank Arora, Bijou Thaangjam
- Where to watch: Netflix
- Release date: July 19, 2019
Penalty is the last chance for a football aspirant from Manipur to prove his mettle and give a befitting response to those who discriminate against him on the base of his looks and language. After a show of world-class football performance, he finally manages to impress team manager Vikram Singh (played by Kay Kay Menon) to reinstate him into the college team.
7. Jhund
- Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ankush Gedam, Akash Thosar, Rinku Rajguru
- Where to watch: Zee 5
- Release date: March 4, 2022
Next up in this list of best football movies is Jhund. It is based on the life of Vijay Barse, a sports teacher, who is about to get retirement. He founded an NGO called Slum Soccer and hired slum children to be part of the football team to keep them away from drugs and child labor. The movie narrates how he transforms the lives of the kids.
8. Chidiakhana
- Cast: Ritvik Sahore, Avneet Kaur, Prashant Narayanan, Ravi Kishan
- Where to watch: Chidiakhana is not available for streaming currently
- Release date: June 2, 2023
Directed by Manish Tiwary, Chidiakhana is the coming-of-age story of a Bihari boy who finally breaks into the bubble and befriends the residents of a Marathi Chawl due to his grit, imagination, and his exceptional football playing skills.
9. Maidaan
- Cast: Ajay Devgn, Priyamani, Gajraj Rao
- Where to watch: The film is scheduled to have a theatrical release on April 11, 2024
Maidaan, directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma and produced by Boney Kapoor is about Syed Abdul Rahim, an ace football coach who revolutionized the sport in India.
While some of these Indian football movies are popular and award-winning, we’re sure you might not have heard about some of these gems. Let us know which of these football-related Indian sports movies impressed you to give it a watch.
