Made on a production budget of ₹14crore, Hindi Medium was released on 19 May 2017, and received a generally positive reception from the critics, with particular praise for the cast performances. The film grossed ₹3.22 billion (US$47.08 million) at the worldwide box office (mostly from China). At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, it won Best Film, and Best Actor for Khan. A spiritual successor, Angrezi Medium was released theatrically on 13 March 2020.
Plot
Raj Batra is a successful boutique owner who lives in the Old Delhi neighbourhood of Chandni Chowk 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 New Delhi's upscale Vasant Vihar 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 RTE quota, a scheme that helps children from poor families to be admitted to prestigious schools. After a scam reveals that rich parents are gaming 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 & Meeta tell the principal of the Bharat Nagar Government School that they plan to admit Pia to his school to study with Mohan.
Taniskaa Sanghvi as a student from Bharat Nagar Government School (Special Appearance in the song “Ek Jindari”)
Guru Randhawa as himself (Special Appearance in the song “Suit Suit”)
Arjun as himself (Special Appearance in the song “Suit Suit”)
Production
Made on a production budget of ₹14 crore, Hindi Medium was produced by Vijan of Maddock Films and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series. The film was directed by Chaudhary, his third after romantic comedy films Pyaar Ke Side Effects (2006) and Shaadi Ke Side Effects (2014). He came up with the idea of making a film about India's education system with his co-writer Zeenat Lakhani during the development of the latter film. They found the idea too extensive to include in Shaadi Ke Side Effects, so after its release, they decided to incorporate the idea into a separate film. Stating the reason to make Hindi Medium, 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."[5]
Pre-production work began after the release of Shaadi Ke Side Effects. Chaudhary began working on the story at that time, and he chose Delhi as the film's key location.[6] The production crew consisted primarily of people Chaudhary had worked with on Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Shaadi Ke Side Effects, with the exception of production designer Mustafa Stationwala—they are editor A. Sreekar Prasad; dialogue writer Amitosh Nagpal; and cinematographer Laxman Utekar. The score was composed by Amar Mohile.[4]
On 29 May 2016, News18 reported the casting of Saba Qamar in the film, which marked her Bollywood debut.[7] 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".[8] 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". Khan commented that he had accepted the role as it tackled the realistic subject of the challenges of obtaining a good education in India.[9]
Qamar arrived in Mumbai from Pakistan in July 2016, and the film's principal photography began in the same month.[10][11] The film was shot in Chandni Chowk, Anand Lok, Karol Bagh, and Sangam Vihar.[6] The shooting was completed in October 2016.[12] A song sequence was also filmed in Georgia.[13] Qamar commented that she enjoyed working with Khan, and felt safe while shooting in Delhi. In the same interview with Pakistani newspaper Dawn, she commented that her experience wasn't affected by the nationalist far-right political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's hostility towards Pakistan at the time.[14]
Hindi Medium's soundtrack consists of two original compositions: "Hoor" and "Ek Jindari", which were produced by Sachin–Jigar. The songs were written by Priya Saraiya and Kumaar, whereas Atif Aslam and Taniskaa Sanghvi, rendered the vocals. In addition to the original tracks, the makers recreated two songs: "Suit Suit", written and sung by Guru Randhawa and Arjun and composed by Randhawa and Rajat Nagpal, and "Oh Ho Ho Ho", composed by Sukhbir and Abhijit Vaghani, sung by Sukhbir, rapped by Ikka Singh and written by Kumaar. The album rights of the film were acquired by T-Series, and it was released on 21 April 2017.[15][16]
Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama, rated the album a 3 out of 5 stars. He said that "the music of Hindi Medium turns out to be better than expected", and praised the inclusion of recreations of "Suit Suit" and "Oh Ho Ho Ho" as they were previously popular Punjabi songs.[16] V. Lakshmi of The Times of India in a positive review of the album said that, "by the time the album ends, the listeners are left humming the tunes!".[17] Suanshu Khurana of The Indian Express highlighted the song "Hoor" as the best song on the album.[18] The track "Ek Jindari" was remade as "Ek Zindagi" for the spiritual successor Angrezi Medium (2020), thereby retaining the original composition and vocals from the track.[19]
In February 2018, following the success of Dangal (2016) and Secret Superstar (2017) in China, it was announced that Hindi Medium was to be released in China.[26]Hindi Medium released in China on 4 April 2018 to coincide with the Qingming Festival.[27] The film's Chinese title is 起跑线 (Qi Pao Xian), which means The Starting Line.[28]
Controversy
The makers of the Bengali film Ramdhanu (2014), directed by the duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, had launched a copyright case against Hindi Medium, claiming that the storyline was similar to their film.[29] 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."[30] Roy and Mukherjee later withdrew their case.[31]
Critical reception
Qamar (pictured) and Khan received praise for their performances
Hindi Medium received a generally positive reception from critics, with particular praise for Khan's and Qamar's performances.[32]
Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle called the film a "masterpiece" and praised Khan's and Qamar's acting.[33] Rachit Gupta of Filmfare 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."[34] Madhureeta Mukherjee of The Times of India highlighted the script, and the comedic elements of the film as its strengths.[35] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times giving 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, commented that "Khan asks the viewers to take a stand against faulty Indian education system".[36] Samrudhi Ghosh of India Today gave 3 out of 5 stars, praising Khan's and Qamar's performances, said "Hindi Medium 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".[37] Smrity Sharma of India.com rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, and wrote: "Decent story, humour, a few heart tugging moments and effortless performances by Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar and Deepak Dobriyal make the movie watchable."[38] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express 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".[39]
Hindi Medium received a generally positive reception from critics outside of India.[40] A reviewer for Time Out 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 Bollywood films".[41] James Marsh of South China Morning Post rated it 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, calling it "a classical comedy of manners full of humour and playful performances".[42] Sadaf Siddique of Dawn observed: "Chaudhary gets full marks for novelty, he fails to adequately flesh his ideas out".[43]
Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN 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."[44]
Box office
The film emerged as a sleeper hit at the box office.[45] Its worldwide gross was ₹1.09 billion (US$16.74 million) by July 2017.[46] Within three days of its April 2018 release in China, Hindi Medium crossed ₹1 billion (US$14.62 million) at the Chinese box office, crossing the ₹2 billion (US$29.24 million) mark worldwide,[47] becoming Khan's highest-grossing Hindi film, surpassing his 2013 release The Lunchbox.[48] By 16 April 2018, Hindi Medium had crossed the ₹3 billion (US$43.87 million) mark worldwide, becoming one of the top 20 highest-grossing Indian films at the time.[49]
Domestic
Hindi Medium collected ₹28.1 million (US$431,500.45) on its opening day.[46] It released on the same day as the much bigger budget film, Half Girlfriend (2017), which earned ₹103 million (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 ₹252 million (US$3.87 million) at the box office.[50] The film grossed ₹967 million (US$14.85 million) during its lifetime run in Indian theatres.[46] It was one of 2017's top ten most commercially successful Hindi films in India.[51]
Overseas
The film grossed ₹143 million (US$2.2 million) overseas in 2017.[52] Following its April 2018 release in China, the film crossed ₹2 billion (US$29.24 million) overseas, becoming the seventh Indian film to cross the $30million mark at the overseas box office. It also surpassed the overseas gross of 2018's highest-grossing Indian film Padmaavat.[49]
China
On its opening day in China, on 4 April 2018, the film grossed ₹221 million (US$3.23 million).[47]Hindi Medium surpassed Dangal (2016) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) to have the second highest opening day for an Indian film in China, behind only Secret Superstar (2018).[53] The film's opening three-day gross was ₹1.02 billion (US$14.91 million).[47]
The film's success is attributed to strong word-of-mouth, helped by a 9.1 rating at the Chinese ticketing website Maoyan, as well as Khan's recognition among Chinese audiences from international films such as Jurassic World, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Life of Pi.[53] The film grossed ₹2.23 billion (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 Dangal, Secret Superstar and Bajrangi Bhaijaan), until it was surpassed by the 2019 release of Andhadhun (2018) in China.[54]
Awards
At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, 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 19th IIFA Awards. It received six nominations at the Zee Cine Awards.
After the success of Hindi Medium, a sequel to the film was planned. Regarding the success of the film, producer Vijan told Mid-Day, "The response we have got is phenomenal. The entire unit of Hindi Medium, 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."[61] On 24 January 2018, Vijan confirmed the sequel to Times Now. 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."[62]
On 30 March 2019, it was announced that Kareena Kapoor has been added to the cast of the sequel to play the role of a police officer and filming will start from April.[63] On 5 April, the sequel's title was announced as Angrezi Medium and filming began in Udaipur. This was completed in July.[64][65] On 17 February 2020, the film's release date was changed to 13 March 2020 from the earlier release date of 20 March.[66] This film marked Irrfan Khan's final film before his death on 29 April 2020.[67]
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood". The industry is a part of the larger Indian cinema, which also includes South Indian cinema and other smaller film industries. The term 'Bollywood', often mistakenly used to refer to Indian cinema as a whole, only refers to Hindi-language films, with Indian cinema being an umbrella term that includes all the film industries in the country, each offering films in diverse languages and styles.
Aamir Husain Khan is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and television personality who works in Hindi films. Referred to as "Mr. Perfectionist" in the media, he is known for his work in a variety of film genres, particularly in films which raise social issues like education and gender equality, or which have a positive impact on society in India or abroad. Through his career spanning over 30 years, Khan has established himself as one of the most notable actors of Indian cinema. Khan is the recipient of numerous awards, including nine Filmfare Awards, four National Film Awards, and an AACTA Award. He was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri in 2003 and the Padma Bhushan in 2010, and received an honorary title from the Government of China in 2017.
Dilip Kumar was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian cinema from the 50s throughout the 60s, being referred to as Abhinay Samrat. Kumar holds the record for most wins for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and was also the inaugural recipient of the award. He holds the most dominant box-office record for a star in Hindi cinema with over 80% box-office successes and several long-standing gross records.
Irrfan Khan was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world cinema, Khan's career spanned over 30 years and earned him numerous accolades, including a National Film Award, an Asian Film Award, and six Filmfare Awards. In 2011, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour. In 2021, he was posthumously awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, also known by the initialism QSQT, is a 1988 Indian Hindi-language romantic musical film, directed by Mansoor Khan in his directorial debut, and written and produced by Nasir Hussain. The film stars Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla in lead roles, making their acting debut. The film features music by Anand–Milind, with lyrics written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak tells the story of two individuals and recounts their journey of falling in love, eloping, and the aftermath.
Saket Chaudhary is an Indian screenwriter and director mostly known for 2017 sleeper hit Hindi Medium. He also co-wrote Santosh Sivan's Asoka and is the director of Pyaar Ke Side Effects, released in September 2006.
Kabir Khan is an Indian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer who works in Hindi cinema. He started his career working in documentary films, and then made his feature film directorial debut in 2006 with the adventure thriller Kabul Express (2006). He is best known for directing New York (2009), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), and 83 (2021). His latest film Chandu Champion (2024) was released on 14 June 2024 opening to positive reviews. This was his second sports biopic after 83 and after The Diplomat (2025).
Super Cassettes Industries Private Limited, doing business as T-Series, is an Indian music record label and film production company founded by Gulshan Kumar on 11 July 1983. It is primarily known for Hindi film soundtracks and Indi-pop music. T-Series is the largest music record label in India, with up to a 35% share of the Indian music market. As of October 2024, T-Series also owns and operates the most-viewed and the second most-subscribed YouTube channel, with over 278 million subscribers and 272 billion views. While best known as a music label, T-Series has produced more than 90 films, and is established a leading film production company of Hindi cinema.
Saba Qamar Zaman is a Pakistani actress who works predominantly in Urdu films and television series. Qamar is one of Pakistan's most popular and highest-paid actresses. She has won several accolades including two Lux Style Awards and a Hum Award, and Government of Pakistan honoured her with Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 2012 and Pride of Performance in 2016.
The term Khans of Bollywood refers to several actors of Bollywood, the Mumbai-based Hindi language Indian film industry, whose surnames are Khan. Most commonly, this involves the Three Khans: Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. The three are unrelated, but happen to share the same surname, and were all born in 1965. Due to their longevity and high popularity, they are considered among the most successful movie stars in the history of Indian cinema.
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Rajat Nagpal is an Indian singer, composer, producer and mix engineer associated with Punjabi and Hindi music. He is trained in Indian and Western classical music. He has been working as a studio engineer and a music producer at Beatfactory Studios and is known for his work in songs like Fashion, Taare, Ban Ja Rani, Suit Suit, All I Need, Akhiyan, Khamkha Yu Hi, and many more. He uses the piano as the main instrument for his compositions and produces music on Logic Pro and Pro Tools.
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Irrfan Khan was an Indian actor who worked in Indian and British-American films. His on-screen debut was a minor role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! in 1988. He followed this with appearances in a variety of television shows in the late 1980s to 1990s including playing ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni in Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), Makhdoom Mohiuddin in Kahkashan (1991), Vladimir Lenin in Lal Ghas Per Neele Ghodey (1992), a dual role in Chandrakanta (1994), and Valmiki in Jai Hanuman (1997). Khan found his television work unfulfilling and considered quitting acting.
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Saba Qamar is a Pakistani actress who works predominantly in Urdu films and television. Qamar started her career with PTV Home's classic television series Mein Aurat Hoon in 2004. She made her Lollywood debut with Sarmad Khoosat directorial film Manto in 2015 and Bollywood debut with Hindi Medium in 2017.
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