13 Shortest Bollywood Movie Titles You Never Knew About
Posted On: 12 Jul 2021 | Last Updated : 08 Mar 2022 | Views : 14.0k
Looking back at the 90s a trend started where we got to see long Bollywood movie titles were often borrowed from yesteryear songs. Then came a trend of biopics and sequels with an addition of a caption to many titles to avoid copyright issues. The last year or so has seen a drastic change in the way films are made and how the audience's tastes have differed as well. With the attention span of audiences reducing drastically and numerous viewing options, filmmakers are increasingly coming up with shorter, simpler, and snazzier movie names and in case the title is not clear then a caption is added to it. If one considers Bollywood movie names without captions then how many titles can you recall with the least number of alphabets? Not many we guess, but here are some of the shortest Bollywood film titles (without captions) that have released in the recent past.
1. ?: A Question Mark (2012)
Though the title read just as ‘?’ with a caption followed by ‘A Question Mark’, but the makers initially tried releasing it without a title. An objection raised by the censorship rules made them release it with a ‘?’ title and a caption. This 2012 horror thriller starring Maanvi Gagroo, Akhlaque Khan, Yaman Chatwal and Varun Thakur was based on a group of college friends who go to a place to shoot a project film but never return. What follows is a compilation of the footage retrieved from their camera.
2. I: Proud to be an Indian (2004)
Another short movie title was the Sohail Khan starrer I which many initially found misleading. Produced by Sohail Khan himself and directed by Puneet Sira, the film dealt with the way Indians and other dark-colored Asians who live in the UK face racial discrimination by the skinheads. The film despite being a non-starter at the box-office managed to highlight a few sensitive issues that continue to prevail in the UK worrying the Asians.
3. D: Underworld Badshah (2005)
Randeep Hooda's D directed by Vishram Sawant is one of the shortest Hindi movie titles you'll find in Bollywood. Though Randeep’s character was called Deshu in the movie many felt that D meant for real-life gangster Dawood which depicted his story. Though the film was well-made and Randeep’s performance was appreciated but it failed to match the brilliance of RGV’s Satya while getting tagged for being a poor remake of the latter.
4. W (2014)
Another one-letter Bollywood movie title was W. W was a musical thriller directed by Tarun Madan Chopra narrated the story of three best female friends who run an event management company by the name of W that organizes musical events. In an unfortunate turn of incident, the three girls form a vengeance squad to settle old scores. The film starred Leeza Mangaldas, Leslie Tripathy and Sonal Giani as the female leads.
5. X: Past is Present (2015)
X is yet another one-letter movie title that was helmed by eleven directors including Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Nalan Kumarasamy, Hemant Gaba, Pratim D. Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath, and Suparn Verma. Though the makers claim that it isn’t an anthology but a solo story with each director contributing to a section of it. The story in short is that of a filmmaker who narrates the story of all the women he comes across in his life. The main cast consists of Rajat Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Parno Mittra, Rii Sen, Richa Shukla, Neha Mahajan, Bidita Bag, Huma Qureshi, Swara Bhaskar, etc.
6. Om (2003) / Om: The Battle Within (2021)
In the shortest Bollywood movie titles list, Om features twice. The first time the title was used by producer-director Ashok Honda whose action-romantic drama Om starring Attin Bhalla and Sandali Sinha hit the screens in 2003. Despite having a decent star cast the film tanked at the box-office. The second time the title Om was used by director Kapil Verma for the Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sanjana Sanghi action-packed thriller. The caption for the film was ‘The Battle Within’.
7. Go (2007)
Producer Ram Gopal Varma’s long-forgotten flick Go directed by Manish Srivastav which starred newbies Gautam Gupta and Priyanka Kothari also was one of the shortest films names you'll come across. Though there wasn’t much to write home about this fun-on-the-run kind of tale where the lead pair elope to Goa together after facing tough family opposition from both sides.
8. Ek: The Power of One (2009)
‘Ek’ starring Bobby Deol, Nana Patekar and Shriya Saran had a short title too which was followed by the caption - The Power of One. This lesser-known action thriller flick was a remake of the Telugu hit ‘Athadu’ starring Mahesh Babu and Trisha. Ek was directed by Sangeeth Sivan and was rejected by the audiences for being a poor remake of Manmohan Desai's Rajesh Khanna - Mumtaz starrer Roti (1974).
9. 99 (2009)
Continuing with the shortest Hindi movie titles, 99 directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. released in 2009. This comedy, crime drama had an interesting premise to it but unfortunately due to lack of promotion didn’t go the distance. The film is about a bunch of small-time crooks including Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan, Boman Irani, Cyrus Broacha, Vinod Khanna and Mahesh Manjrekar who always get stuck on 99 but never score a century in life that is when they plan something big.
10. 3G: A Killer Connection (2013)
3G just about qualifies to the list of top 10 shortest Hindi movies titles of Bollywood. This horror thriller is about a guy named Sam who purchases a second-hand cell phone along with a 3G connection for it but soon starts receiving mysterious calls on it. Though the plot of the film was interesting but somehow loses steam after a while. Directed by Sheershak Anand and Shantanu Ray Chhibber, the film starred Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonal Chauhan and Mrinalini Sharma in the lead.
11. PK (2014)
Rajkumar Hirani's take on our religious system and godmen who dupe and take their followers for a ride. The title of PK consisted of just two letters but easily qualifies as the most popular of the lot. Starring Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt, and Anushka Sharma, the film though touched upon a few sensitive issues for which it landed up in a controversy, still went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of 2014 at the box-office.
12. JD (2017)
This lesser-known two-letter short movie title sank without a trace at the box-office. Written, directed and produced by Shailendra Pandey, the film was loosely based on the life of Indian journalist Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka Magazine. The film starred Lalit Bisht as Jai Dwivedi aka JD along with Govind Namdev, Aman Verma and Vedita Pratap Singh. It also included several well-known real-time journalists that mimic their real-life jobs on-screen.
13. 83 (2021)
We didn't want to restrict ourselves to only the top 10 shortest Bollywood movies titles that's why planned to go the distance and include as many as possible. Director Kabir Khan’s 83 is the latest entrant into the shortest movie names you’ll come across in Bollywood history. The sports biopic as we all know recreates the magic of how India lifted the Cricket World Cup in 1983. With an ensemble star cast of Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani and others, the film brings back the past glory of Kapil's Devil's who became a force to reckon in the world of cricket by upsetting the mighty West Indies in a world cup final.
