12 Bollywood Movies Based On Indo-Pak Cross Border Love Stories
Posted On: 21 Mar 2022 | Last Updated : 19 Oct 2022 | Views : 16.8k
The territorial control over the Kashmir region has always been a major cause of tension and concern between India and Pakistan. Since the 1947 partition, both the countries wanted to claim the entirety over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. On either side of the Indo-Pak border, the two countries have always found themselves in conflicts. However, once in a while, tales of love across the border liberates them. Directed by faith and saturated with courage, these stories honour the triumph of heart. And, when it comes to celebrating love, how could Bollywood stay behind? On a number of occasions, Bollywood has offered us endearing love stories and romantic dramas that are helmed with perfection and are no less than a work of art. A cross-border love affair is surely not an easy one, especially when the lovers come from two warring countries, but one will always find the brave-hearts who will go against the norms to follow their hearts. To capture such a love story of rebels, who go to any extent for their love, is what Bollywood excels in. Let’s check these 12 Bollywood movies based on Indo-Pak Cross Border Love Stories:
1. Henna (1991)
Directed by Randhir Kapoor, the 1991 romantic drama Henna was one of its kind. It was one of the first Bollywood movies dealing with cross border romance. The movie follows the story of a young man named Chandar (Rishi Kapoor) from Srinagar, India, who is in love with a girl named Chandni (Ashwini Bhave), and the two are soon to get engaged. However, Chandar meets with an accident and falls in the river that carries him to Pakistan. He is rescued by a gypsy girl named Henna (Zeba Bakhtiar) and her father, who live near the river in Pakistan. Chandar loses his memory and adjusts to his new life with the tribes. Henna starts to fall in love with Chandar, and her father arranges for her marriage with him. However, on the day of their marriage, he regains his memory. The tribe decides to help Chandar by creating a safe passage for him to go back home without any trouble. The movie very well captures the Indo-Pak relations, and how the war ruins the life of many innocents across the border.
2. Shaheed-E-Mohabbat Boota Singh (1999)
(Note: The movie was originally made in Punjabi-language, but gained huge popularity for its storyline.)
Manoj Puri’s romantic drama, Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh is inspired by the real-life love story of Boota Singh (played by Gurdas Maan) and Zainab (Divya Dutta). Boota Singh was an ex-soldier who served in the British Army during World War II. In 1947, India got freedom and communal riots began. One day, while working in his field, he comes across a beautiful Muslim girl named Zainab, who was being chased by the avenging locals. He rescues the girl and brings her with him. Eventually the two fall in love and get married and have a baby girl. However, Boota’s envious uncle informs the police about Zainab, and tricks them into believing that she is held forcibly and needs to be deported to Pakistan. In the absence of Boota, police take Zainab and send her to her parents’ house. Boota travels to Pakistan with his daughter to find Zainab, however, under the family pressure, Zainab refuses any relations with Boota. Heartbroken Boota jumps in front of the train with his daughter, but miraculously, his daughter survives. Since then, Boota is remembered by everyone for his unconditional love for Zainab.
3. Refugee (2000)
J. P. Dutta’s 2000 romantic film Refugee marked the debut of Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor. The film is said to be inspired by Keki N. Daruwalla’s short story ’Love Across the Salt Desert’. The movie follows the story of an agent named Refugee (Abhishek Bachchan), who helps his clients to track their way across the Rann of Kutch to Pakistan. One of his clients, Manzur Ahmad is settled with his family in East Pakistan, but in 1971, after the formation of Bangladesh, he decides to move to Pakistan with his family. Refugee helps Manzur and his family to track their way to Pakistan. However, he falls in love with Nazneen (Kareena Kapoor), Manzur’s daughter. Shortly after Manzur’s family reaches Pakistan safely, Refugee helps four men to cross the border and enter India. After a while, he travels to Pakistan and meets Nazneen, but he is arrested by Pakistani rangers and beaten up and sent back to India. Back in India, he learns that he unknowingly helped terrorists to cross the border. Thus, he decides to join Border Security Force and fight the terrorists. Though the movie did average at the box office, it still helped the debutants to garner fame.
4. Gadar – Ek Prem Katha (2001)
Directed by Anil Sharma, the romantic period action drama Gadar – Ek Prem Katha is loosely based on the life of Boota Singh. The movie is set during the time of Partition of India and follows the story of a truck driver named Tara Singh (Sunny Deol), a Sikh, who comes across a Muslim girl Sakina (Ameesha Patel), who belongs to a rich Muslim family and is left behind while her family boards the train to Pakistan. Due to communal riots, Hindus in Pakistan are attacked, and in response Sikhs start attacking Muslims in East Punjab. When she is attacked by the mob, Tara rescues her and brings her home. The two eventually fall in love and get married and have a son. However, years later, Sakina’s father locates her and brings her to Pakistan, and forces her to end her relationship with Tara. Tara travels to Pakistan with his son and best friend to find Sakina with the hope to reunite with the love of his life. The movie became the highest grosser of the year and is best remembered for the performance of the actors and its melodious music.
5. Dil Pardesi Ho Gayaa (2003)
Saawan Kumar Tak’s romantic action drama Dil Pardesi Ho Gayaa definitely fits to the list of cross border love story movies of Bollywood. The movie follows the story of a young man named Sunny (Kapil Jhaveri), brother of Major Ram (Ashutosh Rana). Major Ram is one of the soldiers from the Indian Army, who has been captivated in Pakistan after the war broke out between the two nations. While politicians and the Indian army couldn’t decide their next step, Sunny decides to enter Pakistan and disguise himself as Salman and free his brother. However, he falls in love with Ruksar Khan (Saloni Aswani), a Pakistani girl, and the two decide to elope, as Ruksar’s family would never agree for the match. Things take a turn and Sunny lands himself in greater trouble, as Ruksar’s family and police start to hunt them down. He finally locates the camp, where his brother is held and tries to get him free, only to find himself being trapped by the Pakistani soldiers.
6. Veer - Zaara (2004)
Yash Chopra’s period romantic drama Veer - Zaara was the highest grossing film of the year. The film talks about secularism, feminism and surely is one of the best Bollywood films based on Indo-Pak relations. The movie follows the story of an Indian Air Force Officer Veer Pratap Singh (Shah Rukh Khan) and a Pakistani girl named Zaara (Preity Zinta). Zaara travels to India to fulfil her grandmother’s last wish, which was to scatter her ashes in the Sutlej River. However, her bus meets with an accident, and she is rescued by Veer, who later helps her to complete her grandmother’s last wish. After spending some time together, the two fall in love with each other. However, Zaara is already engaged, and bound with her responsibilities, she sacrifices her love and goes back to her family. Veer quits his job and travels to Pakistan, but things don’t go well, as Zaara’s fiancé gets him arrested on the charges of being an Indian spy, while everyone thinks of him being dead. It’s been 22 years, but Veer had never spoken to anyone and tried to prove his innocence, while Zaara spends her past 22 years in Veer’s village and decides to live with all her memories with him. Surely one of the best romantic films, this cross-border love story Bollywood movie was praised by all.
7. Ek Tha Tiger (2012)
Kabir Khan’s 2012 action thriller drama Ek Tha Tiger is most remembered for setting numerous box-office records during its theatrical run. The movie follows the story of an Indian RAW agent Avinash Singh ‘Tiger’ Rathore (Salman Khan), who is assigned the task to recover the information before it is gained by Pakistan. He poses as a writer and tries to befriend Anwar Kidwai (Roshan Seth), an old man of Indian origin who is suspected of leaking secret information to Pakistan. He grows close to Anwar’s caretaker Zoya (Katrina Kaif), and soon the two fall in love. However, things take a turn when Tiger realises that Zoya has her own dark secrets. Much later it is revealed that Zoya is an undercover ISI agent, who was on the mission to counteract Tiger’s efforts. Things get complicated between the two, while it is not known whether they will choose love or their duty.
8. Total Siyapaa (2014)
The romantic comedy drama Total Siyapaa directed by E. Niwas follows the story of two youngsters settled in London: Aman (Ali Zafar) and Asha Singh (Yami Gautam). Aman is a Pakistani musician, who falls in love with Asha, an Indian origin girl living with her conservative family in London. The two wish to get married, but the only problem is to get permission from Asha’s family. He decides to meet her family and ask her hand in marriage. Things go pretty well and he becomes everyone’s favourite in no time. However, his plans to impress Asha’s family start to fail when they learn that Aman is Pakistani. Things go haywire and during the course of events hilarity and chaos ensues. Will the two lovers finally be able to convince the family for the marriage?
9. PK (2014)
Rajkumar Hirani’s sci-fi comedy drama PK follows the story of an innocent alien (Aamir Khan), who lands on Earth and loses his communication device. With no communication device, he finds himself lost and helpless on the alien planet. Thus, he begins his research mission to find his stolen remote (communication device) and comes to be known as PK. He finds out that his remote was sold to a godman – Tapasvi Maharaj (Saurabh Shukla), but when he tries to claim it, he is thrown out. He then comes across a television journalist named Jagat Janani ‘Jaggu’ (Anushka Sharma), who herself hates Tapasvi and agrees to help him get his remote back. Over the time, he raises many thought-provoking questions, which Jaggu telecast on television and everyone starts doubting Tapasvi and other godmen. Jaggu was in love with Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput), a Pakistani Muslim whom she was going to get married, but on the day of marriage Sarfaraz doesn’t turn up. When PK learns this, he makes her see things clearly and contact Sarfaraz again. Eventually, she finds out that there was misunderstanding and Sarfaraz never stopped loving her. The movie was a great initiative for Indo-Pak peace and spread the message of love.
10. Happy Bhag Jayegi (2016)
(Note: Though the protagonists were Indians, the circumstances made them cross the border and get married in Pakistan.)
Directed by Mudassar Aziz, Happy Bhag Jayegi was a romantic comedy drama that followed the story of a free-spirited bride-to-be Harpreet ‘Happy’ Kaur (Diana Penty). Happy is supposed to marry Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Sheirgill), but she wants to marry her musician boyfriend Guddu (Ali Fazal). Thus, on the day of her wedding she elopes to marry her boyfriend. However, she ends up in the lorry of Pakistani politician Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol), and reaches Pakistan. In Pakistan, she is arrested for creating a scene in the market and the officer informs Bilal about the situation. Bilal arranges for her to be deported back to her home, but she doesn’t want to return, as her family would force her to marry Bagga. Bilal thus decides to bring Guddu to Pakistan and get the two lovers married. He manages to bring Guddu to Pakistan, but they are followed by Happy’s father and her fiancé, who are determined to stop the marriage. Will Bilal succeed in uniting the lovers?
11. Raazi (2018)
The 2018 spy thriller film Raazi, directed by Meghna Gulzar, is inspired by Harinder Sikka’s 2008 novel ‘Calling Sehmat’ that was based on the true account of an Indian RAW agent. Set in 1971, it follows the story of a 20-year-old Sehmat Khan (Alia Bhatt), daughter of Indian freedom fighter Hidayat Khan (Rajit Kapur). Hidayat has helped the Indian government to fight against the Pakistani government and wishes to make Sehmat an agent and continue the family tradition of offering their services for the country. She is trained by a senior RAW officer for being an undercover RAW agent. She is married into a Pakistani family by her father so that she can get valuable information about the Pakistani government. Meanwhile, she falls in love with her husband Iqbal Syed (Vicky Kaushal). Is it still to find whether her newly found love for her husband would make her weak and stop her from fulfilling her duties?
12. Indoo Ki Jawani (2020)
Directed by Abir Sengupta, the 2020 coming-of-age comedy drama, Indoo Ki Jawani, follows the story of a young girl named Indoo (Kiara Advani) living in Ghaziabad, India. After her boyfriend Satish (Raghav Raj Kakker) cheats on her, Indoo agrees to download a dating app to find a perfect partner, on the advice of her friend Sonal (Mallika Dua). She finally meets a perfect guy on the app, Samar Khan (Aditya Seal), a musician from Hyderabad, and the two have a good time together, until Samar’s passport accidentally falls on the ground and Indoo finds out that he is from Hyderabad, Pakistani. Indoo starts to accuse him of being one of the terrorists who is all over the news, and soon the perfect date turns into a serious heated argument. Things take a hilarious turn, and during the course of events Samar and Indoo start to fall in love with each other, but still unsure about each other because of their nationalities.
