Top10 Historical epic movies in Bollywood

We are delighted with having a wealthy history. The more we come to know about our history, the more we fall in love and feel thrilled. The epics of ancient India talk about the traditions, heroes, saga, music, etc. The realm of Indian history is vast. 

Bollywood is engrossed by historic moments, whether it is about love for Land or love for Lady. Our filmmakers do show their affection towards history by framing the life story of National Heroes or freedom fighters as a movie. Every moment of history we do live, when we watch it on the big screen, from a page of an opulent history.

Big applause to those directors who dare to bring out the history on screen and showcase the unforgettable incidents. Those high budget movies with big sets, heavy costumes and hundreds of people dancing together on hit music make their own way to be a blockbuster.

Here are a few movies that set high bars for all upcoming movies.

Lagaan -Once Upon a Time in India: This movie was directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar in 2001 starring Aamir Khan and Gracy Singh. The movie was based on oppression by the East India authority for paying taxes during the British Empire in India. Imposing unjust Lagaan(Tax) for villagers who couldn't pay taxes because of drought and contrary weather conditions that bring out heavy dissent. Then the arrogant British officer offered a cricket match to settle it down. If villagers win the match the taxes would be waived otherwise they have to pay double the amount. The movie was on the mark and did justify the truth of history with a little drama. 

Baji Rao-Mastani: Movie BajiRao Mastani was based on the story of Maratha Peshwa BajiRao Saheb  (Ranveer Singh) and his two wives Kashi Bai and Mastani i.e. Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone respectively.  The story goes around and creates a love triangle. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali continued with his trademark of extravaganza film sets, beautiful costumes, and best-choreographed dances and songs.

This film was a prodigious success and praised by critics very much. It did win seven National Film Award with the best direction, best acting, best-supporting actress and more. It was nominated for fourteen categories of awards in Film fare Awards and won nine of them.

 Padmavat- Basically, the movie had created a fuss around even before getting released. Director  Sanjay Leela Bhansali tried to re-frame the life story of Rani Padmavati- The queen of Chittorgarh and wife of Maharaja Ratan Singh (King of Chittorgarh, currently a city of Southern Rajasthan)who committed Johar along with thousands of women and young gals. But due to some controversial changes and the addition of a dramatic version in the real-life story of a queen brought out the protest.

Because of the protest and demand for Banning it, made filmmakers to change its name to 'Padmavat' instead of 'Padmavati' and had to postpone the release date. 

Even after going through such criticism and protest, the film was a super-duper hit on the box-office. The star cast was Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Rana Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Mughal Sultan Allauddin Khilji. It won many awards at different platforms. It is one of the finest movies in the history of Hindi cinema. 

Tanhaji-The Unsung Warrior- The movie released on 10 January 2020. It showcases the life incidences of Marathi warrior of 17th-century Tanhaji Malusare. This periodically action film directed by Om Raut, and starring Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, and Kajol.

The movie was released on a 3-Dimensions screen too and it succeeded to bag in 304.09 Crores at the box-office.

Manikarnika-The Queen of Jhansi- It has been a favorite subject to filmmakers for decades and many hits have been made over the time period.  This movie (2019) is a period drama depicting the life of 'Jhansi ki Rani Lakshmi Bai' aka Manikarnika. It was directed by Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi and actress Kangna Ranaut.

 The movie is about how Rani Lakshmi Bai fought for saving her Land of Jhansi after her husband Raja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar. After the death of Raja, she had to take charge of the Jhansi Empire and took an oath to save the Jhansi. She carried her son on her back and fought the war against the British Raj army until her last breath.

Star Kangana Ranaut is in the main lead and had done complete justice to the bravery folk-tales of Rani Lakshmi Bai even though it could not have a record-breaking collection. Nevertheless, it faced success as a whole.

Kesari- Movie Kesari was directed by Anurag Singh and released in 2019. The story lingers around star cast, Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra. This is the story of a soldier of the British India Army who fights until the last man standing to save the fort from Afghan Tribesmen leader Mullah.

This movie had few negative reviews about the plot etc., but still, it was being able to break the record of the collection. The music of this movie is super hit, which makes you have goosebumps for sure.

Gold- Starring Akshay Kumar and Mouny Roy, the movie gold was written and directed by Reema Kagti. The film is a historical sports drama about how things were at pre and post-independence. Tapan Das (Akshay Kumar), the manager of the Indian Hockey Team manages to bring players together on his own after partition and forms a team for the upcoming Olympic match in a hope to win the 'Gold' as Independent Indian Hockey Team. The movie showcases the hurdles he had to face to prepare all the star players to play for India.

Gold was released on August 15,2018 and was critically and commercially successful. The film grossed 158 Crores at the box office.


Parmanu-The story of Pokhran: The story of Pokhran village in Rajasthan is a historical action drama released in May 2018. The story goes around An IAS Officer Ashwant Raina, who was given a task to lead the operation of developing and testing Nuclear Weapons in Pokhran without bringing it in the knowledge of American Intelligence. Star cast was John Abraham, Diana Penty and Boman Irani. The movie did well and it bagged 96.21 Crores. It was admired widely across the country.

Hotel Mumbai- The movie is inspired by the Documentary of 2009 'Surviving Mumbai' about the Attack in 2008 at the Taj Hotel. It was co-written by Maras and John collee and collation of an Indian-Austrailia-American production. The story showcases the incident of the multiple terror attacks in the heart of Mumbai, starting from Hotel Taj by a terrorist group Lashkar-E-Taiba. Amid gunfire and uproar, a chef and his staff decided to put their lives in danger to protect and help of frightened guests of the Hotel Taj.

The movie was released on 14 March 2019 in Australia, 22 march 2019 in United States and 29th of November 2019 in India.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag- It is a 2013 Biographical sports drama film directed by Rakesh Mehra and starred Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, and Divya Dutta. The movie is based on life of an Indian Athlete Milkha Singh who was the National Runner Champion and Olympian. The movie was inspired by the biography "The Race of My Life" compiles Milkha Singh's journey from a village boy to an Olympian, which was co-written by Milkha Sing and his daughter Sonia Sanwalka.

It was released on 12 July 2013 and was a super hit at the Box Office. It really did well overseas too and got great admiration. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was the sixth highest-grossing 2013 Bollywood film worldwide.

The list of popular historic movies will go on. Each movie is based on some Heroic incidences, nonetheless, all added up the value of our history and our heroes. It is a great way to convey the tales or folk-sayings to the people and reach out to generation, which has lost interest in history. In the order of more films like this, we can't forget Border, Indu Sarkar, Panipat, Bahubali(Part I- II),  Jodha Akhbar, Raag Desh, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mohanjo-Daro, Mughl-e-Azam, Anarkali, Asoka, The Thugs of Hindustan, Prithviraj, Ghazi Attack and many more.