The Honours: Five Best Films of 2025

The Hollywood Reporter India honoured the best Indian feature films of 2025 at the inaugural edition of The Honours, held on February 18 in Mumbai.

The Honours is an RPSG Lifestyle Media property powered by The Hollywood Reporter India, a celebration of excellence in storytelling, across films and series, languages and geographies. The awards were curated by the editorial team of The Hollywood Reporter India, who spent over six months watching, mulling and arguing. With great passion and diligence, we’ve arrived at our best list. Here are our picks:

Bison Kaalamaadan

Mari Selvaraj's Bison Kaalamaadan serves as a manifesto for making cinema from the margins without smoothing their edges. Selvaraj sees beauty not in opposition to brutality, but as a medium to tell the whole, clawed story. Following the journey of a kabaddi player making it against all odds, this film cuts across every fence — of caste, region, clan, and family. Dhruv Vikram delivers an interiorised performance of reined-in passion that explodes on the kabaddi ground, giving shape to Selvaraj's pioneering vision. With thick religious imagery and rousing montage, this is a film that lingers long after its runtime. It's a shining example of bold, uncompromising cinema.

Homebound

Homebound is a film that places a gentle rose on the tombstone of our times. Shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category, Neeraj Ghaywan's compassionate masterpiece follows two friends — one Muslim, one Dalit — on their journey home during the COVID-19 lockdown. Where others might choose irony or cruelty, Ghaywan chooses the far more difficult route of empathy. Featuring luminous performances from Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, this film premiered at the Cannes film festival to widespread acclaim. It is a work buoyed by sincerity and hope, building worlds from brutal structures without ever succumbing to them.

Kantara: Chapter 1

With Kantara: Chapter 1, Rishab Shetty has crafted not merely a prequel, but a triumph of storytelling that expands his vision into an epic tapestry of fate, culture, and intimate self-discovery. With primal energy and haunting folk performances, this film evokes the sacred and the spectacular in equal measure. Shetty himself embodies the righteous hero with full-bodied vigour, while Gulshan Devaiah and Rukmini Vasanth bring unforgettable presence to this mysterious world at the cusp of capitalism. This is cinema at its most visceral and vital — stories that travel wide because they come from the deepest places within.

Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra

Dominic Arun's Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra single-handedly brought back our excitement for cinematic universes. The highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time, this is a superhero film that refuses to be a mere culmination of spectacular events. Kalyani Priyadarshan commands the screen as Chandra, a mysterious super heroine, while Naslen brings comic charm as her unlikely companion. Layered with history, folk tales, and urban humour, the film oscillates between myth and materiality, forging a new path for female presence on screen as central, vital, and gifted. This is visionary storytelling that has given new direction to an entire industry.

Saiyaara

Mohit Suri not only brought back the romance genre with the resounding success of Saiyaara but pushed it in new, tangled directions. Starring debutantes Ahaan Pandey and Aneet Padda, this film is a triumph of innocent, young love that reminds us what it means to be gazed at by a lover. Following in the footsteps of the great romances before it, Saiyaara reassured us of an audience craving soft romance, swooning musical interludes, and eventual union imbued with hope, passion, and kindness of spirit. Its lead actors have been catapulted to instant stardom, with the film reminding an entire industry of the power and persuasiveness of love.