Lagaan and Gadar Ek Prem Katha: 25 years later, have we become more violent? | Bollywood News
It’s been 25 years since I saw Lagaan in a theatre in Chennai. I still vividly remember cheering and clapping as if I was watching a real cricket match and shedding tears when Bhuvan’s (Aamir Khan) rag-tag team of inexperienced villagers defeated the British team from the cantonment that rules over several villages in the region. Interestingly, on the same day that Lagaan released, that is the 15th of June 2001, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha was also released in movie theatres. It was our own Barbenheimer moment when films starring two mainstream stars, Aamir Khan and Sunny Deol, released in theatres on the same day. Each film came with its own risks. Lagaan had a very unusual story that had never been explored on the big screen before. The film also had no recognisable stars or actors apart from Aamir Khan and veteran actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Gadar, a love story set in post-Partition India and Pakistan, had the colour palette and production values of 90’s Bollywood cinema and television. Its leading lady was a relative …
