Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti (transl.  Paint Me Ochre) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age political action film written, produced, and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film stars an ensemble cast including Aamir Khan, Siddharth (in his Hindi debut), Atul Kulkarni, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, British actress Alice Patten (in her Hindi debut), Waheeda Rehman, and Soha Ali Khan with R. Madhavan appears in a guest appearance. It follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian revolutionary movement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the injustices of their present-day government.

Shot primarily in New Delhi, Rang De Basanti was released globally on 26 January 2006. Upon release, the film broke all opening box office records in India, becoming the country's highest-grossing film in its opening weekend and holding the highest opening-day collections for a Hindi film. It eventually became the seventh highest grossing Hindi film of 2006. It received critical acclaim, winning the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and being nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 BAFTA Awards. The film was chosen as India's official entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category, though it did not ultimately yield a nomination for either award. A. R. Rahman's soundtrack, which earned positive reviews, had two of its tracks considered for an Academy Award nomination.

In London, film student Sue McKinley finds the diary of her grandfather James, who served as a colonel in the British Army in the 1930s. James oversaw the capture and execution of the three freedom fighters – Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru – at the Lahore Jail and has written in his diary about his admiration for their revolutionary spirit, in spite of his being an officer of the British Empire.

Inspired by the revolutionaries' story, Sue decides to make a film on them. She travels to India, where she searches for actors with the help of her local associate Sonia, a student of international studies at the University of Delhi. Following a string of unsuccessful auditions, Sue meets Sonia's friends: Daljit "DJ" Singh, Karan Singhania, Sukhi Ram, and Aslam Khan. She immediately decides to cast them in her film, with DJ as Chandra Shekhar Azad, Karan Singhania as Bhagat Singh, Aslam Khan as Ashfaqulla Khan, and Sukhi Ram as Shivaram Rajguru.

DJ, Aslam, Sukhi, and the spendthrift Karan, who is the son of politically well-connected businessman Rajnath Singhania, are at once carefree and cynical about their futures. While they get along well with Sue, they remain uninterested in working on a film expressing patriotism towards India. Tensions arise when Sue casts the boys' rival, conservative party activist Laxman Pandey, as Ram Prasad Bismil. However, over the course of working on the film, Pandey grows closer to the others. Sue begins a relationship with DJ.

The group becomes devastated when Sonia's fiancé, Ajay Singh Rathod, a flight lieutenant in the Indian Air Force, is killed when his MiG-21 jet malfunctions and crashes. The government attributes the accident to pilot error and closes the case, but Sonia and her friends refuse to accept the official explanation, knowing that Ajay was a skilled pilot who died while steering the plane away from crashing into a populous city. They learn that the corrupt Defense Minister Shastri signed a contract importing cheap parts for MiG-21 aircraft in exchange for a personal favor. Karan is severely jolted when he realizes that his father Rajnath was involved in orchestrating the deal.

Since working on the film has already made them imbibe idealism and galvanized them against government corruption, the group organizes a peaceful protest at the India Gate. The police arrive and violently break up the demonstration; Ajay's mother, Aishwarya, is beaten by the police and falls into a coma. Laxman realizes that his senior party official, Raghuvir Mishra, was in league with the government officials who ordered the police to stop the protest and becomes disillusioned with his party. Inspired by the revolutionaries, the group decides to take action themselves. They assassinate Shastri to avenge Ajay's death, while Karan confronts and murders Rajnath.

The media reports that Shastri was killed by terrorists and celebrates him as a martyr. The group decides to publicly clarify their intent behind the assassination, and towards this end, they take over the All India Radio station after evacuating its employees. Karan goes on air and calls out the defense ministry's corruption to the public. The police arrive at the station under instructions to kill them. Sukhi is shot dead, while Aslam and Laxman are killed by a grenade, and DJ is severely injured. DJ reunites with Karan in the recording room as the latter finishes his public statement and the two are killed together.