How a Bollywood blockbuster reclaimed a religious icon to bridge a divided border
In short: When director Kabir Khan saw a Hindu deity being co-opted for sectarian violence, he set out to reclaim the figure through film. The result was Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a massive 2015 hit that transcended borders, uniting audiences from India to China with a story of a man’s devotion to a lost child.
Released in 2015, Bajrangi Bhaijaan tells the story of Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi, a devout Hindu who risks everything to return a mute, six-year-old Pakistani girl to her family. The film was born from director Kabir Khan’s desire to challenge the rising religious sectarianism in India. He specifically sought to reclaim the name of the Hindu deity Bajrangi—often associated with the fundamentalist group Bajrang Dal—by presenting a character whose kindness and devotion resonated across all religious communities.
The production was an ambitious undertaking, with principal photography beginning in November 2014 across locations including Delhi, Rajasthan, and the Kashmir Valley. The film’s climax, shot near the Thajiwas glacier at 10,000 feet, involved approximately 7,000 people. Despite being a quintessential Bollywood drama, its themes of cross-border empathy found surprising resonance abroad. In China, where it was released in 2018 as Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle, audiences drew parallels between the protagonist and the legendary Sun Wukong from the 16th-century epic Journey to the West.
Commercially, the film was a juggernaut, grossing a worldwide total of ₹969.9 crore. It became the seventh highest-grossing Hindi film and achieved significant success in overseas markets, including the Persian Gulf and China. Critics noted that while the film was unabashedly manipulative and sentimental, its emotional core proved effective. Following its success, a sequel titled Pawan Putra Bhaijaan was confirmed to be in development in December 2021, with V. Vijayendra Prasad returning to write the script.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Bajrangi Bhaijaan
- Also: Bajrangi Bhaijaan
- Also: Wikidata — Bajrangi Bhaijaan · CC0
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