Bollywood's 25 Best Revenge Films

Avenging angels, reincarnated heroes, and ghosts seeking retribution – Hindi cinema's best vengeance stories have these and some more.

Master filmmaker Bimal Roy creates a mystical tale of thwarted love, reincarnation and revenge set in the mountains. With its accomplished storytelling, moody lensing and haunting soundtrack, Madhumati is a cut above all the other filmi punarjanam saga and considered among Hindi cinema's finest.

Sadhana makes a fabulous transformation from a simple office girl to a chic head-turner determined to exact revenge from her tormentors in this story of deceit and retribution. Inspired by the 1930 Hollywood flick Paid starring Joan Crawford, Intaquam was directed by the actress' husband RK Nayyar and is best remembered for its hit songs Kaise Rahun Chup and Helen's iconic cabaret number Aa Jaane Jaan.

In this desi re-imagination of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Dharmendra plays an honest bank manager who sets out to settle scores with his treacherous colleagues who framed him in an embezzlement case.

A rotten dead body crawls out of its grave to seek vengeance from those who killed him. In this camp classic, Ramsay Brothers provide a spooky spin to the classic deception-revenge trope with zombies, sinister havelis and grim graveyards.

Salim-Javed and the Sippys give India a taste of spaghetti westerns and frontier justice, packing dacoits, horses, train chases, gunfights and some of the most iconic moments in Indian cinema history in a film that was panned widely by critics, but rose to be India’s biggest blockbuster regardless.

A ravishing Reena Roy plays a shapeshifting snake out to eliminate her dead lover's killers in this superhit fantasy multi-starrer. With her fantastic fashion, enviable colourful lenses and an attitude to match, Roy created the template for all avenging icchadhari naagins to come.

Amitabh Bachchan delivers an unforgettable performance as the resentful illegitimate son of a construction baron hell-bent on destroying his father's business, reputation and domestic life for betraying his mother.

Devoted labrador Moti helplessly watches his human getting murdered. Distraught but determined he goes on an avenging spree and punishes each perpetrator with the most gruesome death.

There's a lot going for this fantastic tale of reincarnation and retribution – a winsome lead, stupendous soundtrack, solid support cast and an unlikely Bollywood villain.

Dharmendra stars in a double role in this successful ghost-comedy film. A wealthy, slow-witted young man is killed for his inheritance and his ghost seeks out his long-lost brother to seek revenge from his killers.

Amitabh Bachchan plays both father and son in this K Bhagyaraj revenge drama. After serving 24 years in prison for being falsely implicated for his wife's murder, an ageing man sets out to serve comeuppance to all those who wronged him, but his son, who's an honest cop, is hot on his heels.

In the role of a life, Rekha transforms from the plain Jane widow Aarti to the ambitious model Jyoti out to avenge the wrongs done to her. Strictly not for herpetophobes.

During the Eighties and Nineties Bollywood saw a spate of rape-revenge drama – Insaf ka Tarazu (1980), Kali Ganga (1990), Phool Bane Angaray (1991), but Dimple Kapadia's starrer Zakhmi Aurat made the biggest impact. A police woman is brutally raped but despite her testimony her rapists go scot-free. With her faith in the justice system shattered, she bands together with other rape survivors to mete out punishment to their perpetrators by castrating them.

Amitabh Bachchan delivers one of his darkest, most iconic performances as the kohl-eyed, white suited Vijay Chavan, the destituted child who rises to be the underworld kingpin, driven by ambition and the need to avenge his father’s murder. The film bombed, but AB took the National Award for the portrayal of the gangster with the deep voice and a consequentialist worldview. Dharma Productions would remake the film in 2012 with Hrithik Roshan as Chavan, and this time the film would rake in Rs 200 crore.

Long before he was pulling handpumps out of the ground, Sunny Deol was hunting down bad cops on the streets of Delhi. This film is powered solely by the lead’s visceral rage, as Sunny’s Ajay Mehra goes after Balwant Rai and his goons for destroying his happy family life.

Abbas-Mustan's thrilling story of love, rage and revenge gave Hindi cinema an iconic character and the industry its new superstar. Shah Rukh Khan stars in a career-defining role of Ajay Sharma, the tragic anti-hero who lies, fakes identities and even kills the woman he loves to fulfill his lifelong mission of destroying the man responsible for his family's doom.

A psychopath's obsession with her destroys Shivani's world – she is framed for a crime she didn't commit and watches her whole family perish. Madhuri Dixit's turn as the avenging angel with nothing to lose was a whimper at the box office but nonetheless remains among Bollywood's darkest revenge tales.

Salman Khan. Shah Rukh Khan. Murder. Reincarnation. Revenge. What could possibly go wrong with this formula? Karan Arjun, the story about two murdered brothers reincarnating as foes-turned-friends. The only thing that stopped it from becoming the biggest crowd puller of 1995 was the other Shah Rukh-Kajol starrer released the same year: DDLJ.

Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea, then lovers and industry newcomers, anchored this horror story about a couple whose love life is rudely interrupted by a ghost from the past. Blending the stories of the Rekha-starrer Mangalsutra (1981) and Hollywood’s What Lies Beneath, Raaz revived the genre for mainstream Bollywood.

Urmila Matondkar's performance in Sriram Raghavan's neo-noir directorial debut is one her career best. As Sarika, the unsuspecting young woman hardened by her boyfriend's treachery and wrongful incarceration, the actress' hold over her character's wide range of emotions is commendable.

AR Murugadoss’ rendition of Nolan’s Memento has Aamir Khan as an amnesiac businessman whose girlfriend is brutally murdered. Aamir pulls out all stops for this role. He bulked up, covered his body in tattoos, and gave himself an iconic new haircut. Ghajini smashed all box office records in India, becoming the first member of the Rs 100 crore club.

There is no greater tale of revenge in Hindi cinema. Anurag Kashyap’s two-part magnum opus anchored by Manoj Bajpayee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and flanked by an incredible supporting cast, is a tale of generational greed, ambition, wrath, and lust, summed best by Nawaz’s Faisal who says “Baap ka, bhai ka, dada ka, sabka badla lega re tera Faisal.”

Sujoy Ghosh brings the aura of Ma Durga to life in this gripping tale of Vidya Balan as a pregnant woman who comes to Kolkata to find her missing husband. The sights and sounds of Kolkata in the Pujo season, the intrigue around her husband, and a brilliant support cast lead us to one of the greatest climaxes in Hindi cinema.

Varun Dhawan rises above the chocolate hero roles and delivers one of his most serious performances as the grief-stricken Raghav trying to make sense of the loss of his wife and child. Such is his desire for revenge, he becomes the monster he had set out to kill.

Let down by a toothless system, a visually-impaired man sets out to seek justice for the rape and suicide of his wife. Using his instincts and voice modulating skills, he fashions the culprits a befitting end without calling the law's attention to him.