Hindi Medium

<p>Raj Batra is a successful boutique owner who lives in the neighbourhood of with his wife Meeta and his 5-year-old daughter, Pia. The couple wants Pia to be admitted to a prestigious English-medium school in Delhi as they feel that this will enable her to become a part of elite society. They decide on Delhi Grammar School, which is ranked the best in the city, but requires that students must stay within a 3-km radius of the school. They move to a posh villa in ‘s upscale neighbourhood and try to become more refined in their manner. A consultant, Saumya, despite her misgivings about them, tutors them in the answers to be given in the admission interview, but their limited knowledge of English means Pia’s application is rejected. Raj and Meeta learn from an employee that his daughter has been admitted through the quota, a scheme that helps children from poor families to be admitted to prestigious schools. After a scam reveals that rich parents have been misusing the quota to admit their children, they move to Bharat Nagar, a slum area, for a month and pretend to be poor. They strike a friendship with Shyam Prakash and Tulsi Prakash, who are hopeful that their son Mohan gets to study at Delhi Grammar School through the RTE quota. Shyam and Tulsi teach them to live like truly poor people, and Raj joins Shyam at work. However, while Pia eventually gets admission, Mohan’s application is rejected. Raj, Meeta & Pia return to Vasant Vihar. Raj and Meeta make a donation to the Bharat Nagar Government School, where Mohan studies, to renovate it and get new books. After watching their son become fluent in English, Shyam and Tulsi search for the identity of the anonymous donor to thank them. However, when he visits the donor’s address in Vasant Vihar, Shyam finds out the truth about Raj pretending to be poor to enable Pia’s admission and leaves to tell Delhi Grammar School’s principal Lodha Singhania of Raj’s deceit. Raj and Meeta rush to Delhi Grammar School to get there before Shyam but fail. Shyam, reaching there first, tries to find the principal’s office but meets Pia instead, where Shyam endures an emotional moment with her and decides not to tell the principal, but Raj reacts with guilt for what he has done. Finally, Raj goes to the principal and asks for Pia’s admission to be revoked, while telling the truth, but the principal rejects him. Raj gatecrashes the Annual Day function, gives a speech about English in India and education rights, and leaves, with no one clapping for him, except Meeta. On their way out, Raj and Meeta tell the principal of the Bharat Nagar Government School that they plan to admit Pia to his school to study with Mohan. Credits adapted from : Made on a production budget of crore, was produced by Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films in his third independent venture as a producer (since his creative split with actor and producer ) after the satire (2014) and the crime thriller (2015), and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series. The film was written and directed by Chaudhary in his third filmmaking endeavour after the films (2006) and (2014). He came up with the idea of making a film about with his co-writer Zeenat Lakhani during the development of the latter film. They found the idea too extensive to include in , so after its release, they decided to incorporate the idea into a separate film. Stating the reason to make , Chaudhary said, “The subject is so relevant. We realised that today irrespective of the background of the parent, they still want to have the best education for the children.” Pre-production work began after the release of . Chaudhary began working on the story at that time, and he chose Delhi as the film’s key location. Chaudhary moved on to a new production team from the films, led by Mustafa Stationwala — they are editor A. Sreekar Prasad; dialogue writer ; and cinematographer Laxman Utekar. The score was composed by Amar Mohile. On 29 May 2016, reported the casting of in the film, which marked her Bollywood debut. Khan had recommended the casting of Qamar to the makers of the film. He said, “When I saw her YouTube videos, I recommended her to the director and producer and they really liked her”. Speaking about her role, Qamar said, “I play a person who didn’t get an opportunity to fulfil her dreams so she comes up with a scheme about giving the daughter a life that she didn’t have”.<br /> Khan commented that he had accepted the role as it tackled the realistic subject of the challenges of obtaining a good education in India. Qamar arrived in from Pakistan in July 2016, and the film’s principal photography began in the same month. The film was shot in , Anand Lok, Karol Bagh, and Sangam Vihar. The shooting was completed in October 2016. A song sequence was also filmed in . Qamar commented that she enjoyed working with Khan, and felt safe while shooting in Delhi. In the same interview with Pakistani newspaper , she commented that her experience wasn’t affected by the nationalist far-right political party ‘s hostility towards at the time. ‘s soundtrack consists of two original compositions: “Hoor” and “Ek Jindari”, which were produced by . The songs were written by and , whereas and Taniskaa Sanghvi, rendered the vocals. In addition to the original tracks, the makers recreated two songs: “Suit Suit”, written and sung by and and composed by Randhawa and , and “Oh Ho Ho Ho”, composed by and , sung by Sukhbir, rapped by and written by Kumaar. The album rights of the film were acquired by , and it was released on 21 April 2017. The film was initially scheduled to release on 12 May 2017, but was pushed by a week back, thereby clashing with , scheduled for release on the same date. was declared ‘tax-free’ in , , and . In February 2018, following the success of (2016) and (2017) in China, it was announced that was to be released in China. released in on 4 April 2018 to coincide with the . The film’s Chinese title is 起跑线 ( ), which means . The makers of the film (2014), directed by the duo and , had launched a case against , claiming that the storyline was similar to their film. In response to this, Chaudhary said “We have researched our script over a year and it is based on original material. I would request everyone involved to not rush to a judgement without ascertaining the facts. And the facts can easily be confirmed by watching the film.” Roy and Mukherjee later withdrew their case. received a generally positive reception from critics, with particular praise for Khan’s and Qamar’s performances. Rohit Bhatnagar of called the film a “masterpiece” and praised Khan’s and Qamar’s acting. Rachit Gupta of rated the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and said that it was a “refreshingly funny and brilliantly insightful film on parenting and education.” Madhureeta Mukherjee of highlighted the script, and the comedic elements of the film as its strengths. Rohit Vats of giving 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, commented that “Khan asks the viewers to take a stand against faulty Indian education system”. Samrudhi Ghosh of gave 3 out of 5 stars, praising Khan’s and Qamar’s performances, said ” may use over-dramatised events to make its message hit home, but in spite of its hiccups, the film is not bogged down because of the performances and the humour”. Smrity Sharma of rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, and wrote: “Decent story, humour, a few heart tugging moments and effortless performances by , and make the movie watchable.” Shubhra Gupta of giving 2 out of 5 stars, praised Khan’s acting however felt that the writing was “flat”, and that some of the supporting characters were “more caricature than real”. received a generally positive reception from critics outside of India. A reviewer for gave it 4 out of 5 stars: “With all its merits, though, the film stumbles near the end with its overly sentimental conclusion.” The reviewer concluded that “the film is one of the best films”. James Marsh of rated it 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, calling it “a classical comedy of manners full of humour and playful performances”. Sadaf Siddique of observed: “Chaudhary gets full marks for novelty, he fails to adequately flesh his ideas out”. of gave 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting “Despite its shortcomings, the film is never unwatchable and benefits enormously from a winning performance by Irrfan Khan who makes his every moment on screen count. From his hilarious wooing of a mother-daughter pair of potential customers at his shop in the film’s first half to his earnest amends on discovering his conscience late into the final act, he has you eating out of his palm. For Irrfan alone, Hindi Medium may be worth a watch.” The film emerged as a at the box office. Its worldwide gross was (US$16.74 million) by July 2017. Within three days of its April 2018 release in China, crossed (US$14.62 million) at the Chinese box office, crossing the (US$29.24 million) mark worldwide, becoming Khan’s highest-grossing Hindi film, surpassing his 2013 release . By 16 April 2018, had crossed the (US$43.87 million) mark worldwide, becoming one of the top 20 highest-grossing Indian films at the time. collected (US$431,500.45) on its opening day. It released on the same day as the much bigger budget film, (2017), which earned (US$1.58 million) on the first day. Gradually, the film turned to be more successful than the former. After one week, the film grossed (US$3.87 million) at the box office. The film grossed (US$14.85 million) during its lifetime run in Indian theatres. It was one of 2017’s top ten most commercially successful Hindi films in India. The film grossed (US$2.2 million) overseas in 2017. Following its April 2018 release in China, the film crossed (US$29.24 million) overseas, becoming the seventh Indian film to cross the mark at the . It also surpassed the overseas gross of 2018’s highest-grossing Indian film . On its opening day in , on 4 April 2018, the film grossed (US$3.23 million). surpassed (2016) and (2015) to have the second highest opening day for an Indian film in China, behind only (2018). The film’s opening three-day gross was (US$14.91 million). The film’s success is attributed to strong , helped by a 9.1 rating at the Chinese ticketing website , as well as Khan’s recognition among Chinese audiences from international films such as , , and . The film grossed (US$32.61 million) during its lifetime run at the Chinese box office. This made it the fourth highest-grossing Indian film in China (after , and ), until it was surpassed by the 2019 release of (2018) in China. At the , the film garnered six nominations, winning for Best Film and Best Actor for Khan. Chaudhary won Best Director and Khan won for Best Actor at the . It received six nominations at the . After the success of , a sequel to the film was planned. Regarding the success of the film, producer Vijan told , “The response we have got is phenomenal. The entire unit of , including Irrfan and Saba, who look cool as a couple on-screen, should be repeated in a film. There is definitely scope for a sequel. We would certainly explore it.” On 24 January 2018, Vijan confirmed the sequel to . He said, “We have just finished typing the second part”, with “Just finishing touches are being put”, however, “I think you will have to wait for an official announcement for that.” Meanwhile, syrocketed Vijan to popularity, and marked the beginning of a longstanding association between him and composer duo , who have since composed for all but five productions as of April 2025; they had also previously guest-composed a dance number for (2014) and the entire soundtrack and score for (2015). Cinematographer also made his directorial debut with Vijan as producer under (2019) starring Vijan’s other regular collaborators and , later writing and directing three more films, viz. (2021) which won Sanon the and Tripathi the , (2023) and (2025), the lattermost of which ranks among Vijan’s highest-grossing productions. Editor also worked on Vijan’s next film, (2017), which coincidentally served as his directorial debut and marked the beginning of his association with Sanon. , who played a supporting role in the film, would also go on to feature in a handful of later Maddock productions, most notably the Netflix film (2024). On 30 March 2019, it was announced that has been added to the cast of the sequel to play the role of a police officer and filming will start from April. On 5 April, the sequel’s title was announced as and filming began in . This was completed in July. On 17 February 2020, the film’s release date was changed to 13 March 2020 from the earlier release date of 20 March. This marked Irrfan Khan’s final film before his untimely death on 29 April 2020.</p>