THR India's 25 in 25: How 'Lagaan' Became a Match for the Ages

When Lagaan premiered in 2001, it didn't just tell the story of a cricket match against colonial oppressors, it rewrote the playbook for what Indian cinema could achieve on a global stage.

Ashutosh Gowariker's epic established the template for the modern Indian blockbuster. Its nuanced commentary on colonialism, caste, and resistance, A.R. Rahman's larger-than-life score, Anil Mehta's cinematography, iconic dialogues such as, “Hamaar paseena hamre tann main khoon banke daudega (our sweat will turn to blood and run in our veins)” a stellar ensemble cast, and its unabashedly commercial presentation, not only firmly secured the film its place in Indian pop culture but also on any definitive list of the millennium's finest films.

The film's Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film was recognition of cinema that transcended cultural boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in its soil. Hollywood took notice of a three-and-a-half-hour Hindi film that never once felt indulgent, where every character served the narrative and every song advanced the story. This wasn't the Bollywood that Western audiences had glimpsed in festival circuits — this was Indian cinema announcing itself as a serious artistic force, capable of sophisticated storytelling.  

Lagaan was a game-changer in more ways than one. The cricket sequences remain textbook examples of how to build tension through editing and performance rather than special effects. And 24 years later, when filmmakers struggle to create genuine crowd-pleasing moments, Lagaan's climax still delivers goosebumps. The film also gave Indian filmmakers the confidence to write and produce stories around cricket, leading to films such as the Shreyas Talpade starrer Iqbal; Jannat, headlined by Emraan Hashmi; the Sushant Singh Rajput-led biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story; Kabir Khan's 83; and the 2025 Netflix drama Test, among others.

Lagaan's legacy, 24 years on, lies in how it demolished the false choice between commercial appeal and artistic integrity. In an era where Indian cinema grapples with its global identity, Lagaan stands as proof that authenticity, not imitation, is the path to universal appeal. It didn't just win a game against the British — it won Indian cinema's right to dream big.

Aamir Khan in 'Lagaan'

Anil Mehta on Making Lagaan

Filming in the Bhuj desert, the film’s cinematographer, Anil Mehta, remembers how industry veterans kept telling Aamir Khan that he was embarking on a doomed venture because it was a, “period film, set in a remote village where there has been no rain for years, and then a cricket match is played against the British masters...but there we were, all working tirelessly to make it happen.”

When asked about the iconic climax of the scene, Mehta recalls how they had to think on their feet to make it rain while the Bhuj sun blared over their heads. “The climax required rain. The match has just been won, and as an act of God, the heavens open up, and it pours. There was no way we were going to get overcast skies, so in the blazing sun, it rains. For me, it’s still a big problem. You have an open landscape, you’re in Bhuj, and we had some primitive rain machines — literally shower heads on water pipes held up by a whole string of crew members. The entire lighting team was in on this act of making it rain,” he says.

“In my mind, I had to process this: we’ve won the match, the villagers are delirious, the film is, in a sense, over. I wasn’t going to wait for overcast skies to make the rain look realistic — which, by the way, we did with the song “Ghanan Ghanan” — I went with the moment and let the rain happen in bright sunlight. The feeling was more important than the logic,” says Mehta.

For a film like Lagaan, one that was responsible for changing the grammar of mainstream Indian cinema, such stories are not uncommon. “That’s the thing with cinema,” Mehta says. “There’s no right way. You trust your instincts, you own your choices, and the rest, as they say, is history.”