10 Movies Based On Indian Novels 

Movies play an important role in forming a relationship between society and its people.

Movies can be a source of entertainment, help educate someone, convey any hidden or important message to the public, spread any important social news, etc. 

Similarly, novels and storybooks help in increasing and improving our intellectual knowledge. But some people think reading books is time-consuming and less interesting than watching movies.

So, this idea of making movies based on famous novels and stories excites the watchers and makes the non-readers curious to know more about the authors’ work.

Here are the 10 best movies based on Indian Novels that you must watch.

3 Idiots (2009)

Image Source: BW/DR

Director Name: Rajkumar Hirani

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Where to Watch:  Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, and MX Player.

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from Chetan Bhagat’s novel, “Five Point Someone.” The film casts Amir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, and a few more well-known actors.

The movie revolves around three friends, Rancho, Farhan, and Raju, who meet at an engineering college. All three of them were very different, but little did they know that they would form an unbreakable bond of friendship.

The three years of college are full of ups and downs that keep testing their bond. They were called idiots by the outer world, but time proved their real intelligence.

Hello (2008)

Image Source: IMDb

Director Name: Atul Agnihotri

Genre: Drama, Romance

Where to Watch: Airtel Movies, Amazon Prime Videos, and MX Player.

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from Chetan Bhagat’s novel, “One Night @ the Call Center.” 

The movie revolves around a group of colleagues at a call center who struggle between personal problems and unending calls. 

One day they receive a secret and mysterious call that offers them to compensate for the faults and mistakes made by them. 

As mentioned above, the IMDb of the movie is 3.3/10.

7 Khoon Maaf (2011)

Image Source: Netflix

Director Name: Vishal Bhardwaj

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Mystery

Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

The movie mentioned above is an adaption from Ruskin Bond’s novel, “Susanna’s Seven Husbands.” this movie is regarded as Priyanka Chopra’s most talked about film.

The movie revolves around Susanna’s life, who has a hunger and craves for love and who might go to any extent to find true and pure love.

 On her way to find a perfect man and life partner, she marries seven men, and every time she gets married, her husband dies unusually.

All the men who came into Susanna’s life gave her deep wounds which were not easy to be cured. They influenced her life and way of living, broke her heart into several pieces, and met with unusual deaths.

Kai Po Che! (2013)

Director Name: Abhishek Kapoor

Genre: Drama, Sport

Where to Watch: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

The movie mentioned above is adapted from “The 3 Mistakes of My Life,” a novel written by Chetan Bhagat.  

The movie revolves around three friends in India who decide to start a training institute for aspiring cricketers and train them to become the country’s future cricketers.

 But time had some other plans for them; just before they could fulfill their wishes and goals, they had to experience an earthquake, communal riots and fights, and some political issues that led to the climax and gave a turn to the story.

As mentioned above, the IMDb of the movie is 7.8/10.

Two states (2014)

Director Name: Abhishek Verman

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Where to Watch: Disney Plus Hotstar, Zee5

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from Chetan Bhagat’s novel “2 States”. The film casts Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

The movie revolves around Krish Malhotra, a north Indian Punjabi boy from Delhi, and Ananya Swaminathan, a south Indian Tamil brahmin girl from Chennai who belongs to two different cultural and religious backgrounds.

 Initially, they meet at IIM Ahmedabad college while on their course and fall in love with each other. But being from different cultures, their parents are against their relationship and the idea of getting married. After getting married and completing their love story, the couple tries to convince both families. Krish tries to convince Ananya’s family by meeting them and vice versa. Will Krish and Ananya’s love for each other win over the world?

As mentioned above, the IMDb of the movie is 6.9/10.

Haider (2014)

Image Source: THR

Director Name: Vishal Bhardwaj

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Where to Watch: Zee5, Netflix

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from William Shakespeare’s tragedy, HamletThe film casts Shahid Kapoor and Tabu.

The movie revolves around a young man, Haider, who returns to Kashmir after his uncle informs him that his father has disappeared.

He suspects that his uncle is behind his disappearance. He tries to find out about his father’s sudden disappearance, but the local political authorities ensure he fails. 

While searching for his father, Haider learns that the state’s security officers have helped in his father’s disappearance while supplying militants and other news that his mother has an illegitimate relationship with his uncle.

Later, Haider and his mother learn that his father has died and that his uncle was behind the cause of his death. So, Haider decides to take revenge for his father’s death.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Image Source: MUBI

Director Name: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandon

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Where to Watch: Disney Plus Hotstar, Hulu, Amazon Prime Videos

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from the novel Q & A by Indian author Vikas Swarup.

The film covers the life of an 18-year-old teenager from Mumbai’s slum, Jamal Malik. On his golden day when he gets a chance to become the contestant on a quiz game show called “Kaun Banega Crorepati?” the Indian version of the British show called “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

 During the game show, he performs brilliantly and wins two cores. Later after the show, the public starts suspecting him of cheating, and the police arrest him, so he describes his past events of how he got to know about the answers.

Bandit Queen (1994)

Image Source: VV

Director Name: Shekhar Kapur

Genre: Action, Biography, Crime

Where to Watch: MX Player, Youtube

As mentioned above, the movie is adapted from the book India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi written by Indian Author Mala Sen.

The film is an autobiography filled with adventure and action scenes that describes and shows the life of a fearless woman called Phoolan Devi, a woman from a lower caste who faces gender discrimination, sexual abuse, and societal discrimination. 

She used to protest against bad deeds and was put behind bars in 1983. After spending ten years in jail, she was released in 1994. Later in life, she became a politician and was murdered in 2001.

Half Girlfriend (2017)

Image Source: TW

Director Name: Mohit Suri

Genre: Drama, Romance

Where to Watch: Zee5, Netflix

As mentioned above, the movie adapts from Chetan Bhagat’s novel “Half Girlfriend.”

The movie is an Indian romantic film about the love story of Madhav Jha, a student from Bihar, and Riya Somani, a Delhi girl.

They meet at a college in Delhi. Madhav is an old-school Bihari boy with a simple way of living, whereas Riya is a typical Delhi girl who lives a lavish lifestyle and has all the luxuries that Madhav could only dream of, but it was hard for him to have it.

Later during college Madhav falls in love with Riya, but she has no such feelings for him. Madhav wanted to be in a relationship with her, but she denied it and just wanted to have a friendship with no responsibilities of being in a relationship.

Madhav tries all the tactics he can to convince Riya, so later she half-heartedly agrees to be his Half Girlfriend.

The Blue Umbrella (2005)

Image Source: OTTPlay

Director Name: Vishal Bhardwaj

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family

Where to Watch: Disney Plus Hotstar, Amazon Prime Videos

The movie, as mentioned above, is an adaption from an Indian novel named The Blue Umbrella written by Ruskin Bond in 1980.

The film is about Biniya, a young girl who lives in the ranges of Himachal Pradesh which is generally covered with snow. She lives with her widow mother and brother, a wrestler. She was usually found entertaining the tourists who visited there.

She had a beautiful Japanese blue umbrella given to her by one of the tourists, which she carried daily. Everyone in the area knew about her and her blue umbrella; later, the tourists started recognizing her because of her umbrella.  

There was a man named Nand Kishore Khatri who ran a restaurant. He thought that if he got the umbrella, the tourists would get attracted to him, which would help him increase his sales. He tried many times to convince Biniya, but all went in vain. Biniya never agreed to sell her umbrella to him.

One day while tending her cows, her umbrella gets stolen. She doubts that Nand Kishore might have stolen it and charges a complaint against him.

The police searched for everyone but were not able to find it. Nand Kishore gets upset and buys another red and white Japanese umbrella to become popular among tourists and local villagers. 

To know what happened to Biniya’s umbrella? Who stole it? Did she find it later? Come and join along to get all your answers and continue with Biniya’s journey to find her missing umbrella.

Featured Image Source: IMDb

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