Rang De Basanti is a Hindi language drama film released in 2006, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It stars Aamir Khan, Siddharth Narayan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, and Alice Patten in leading roles. The film features five friends named DJ, Karan, Aslam, Sukhi, and Laxman who are carefree and aimless in life. They are introduced to a British documentary filmmaker named Sue McKinley who is making a film about Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, and Ramprasad Bismil for the BBC.
The friends agree to take up roles in the film and as they begin to delve deeper into the lives of the freedom fighters they are portraying, they develop a sense of nationalism and a desire to see change in their own country. This feeling is further fuelled by the shocking death of their friend, a young Air Force pilot named Ajay Singh Rathod, who is killed in a plane crash due to government corruption.
The group initially grieves the loss of their friend and decides to take matters into their own hands. They start protesting against the government and the corrupt system in their own ways. In their quest to seek justice for their friend's death, they stage a peaceful protest which turns out to be violent and leads to the death of a corrupt government official. The group is hunted down by the authorities and are put on trial.
The film is a powerful commentary on the Indian political and social system and strikes a chord with the youth of the nation who feel disillusioned with the non-functioning bureaucracy and the system that is mired in corruption. The film manages to capture the anger and frustration of the younger generation in a very poignant manner and highlights the power of youth and the importance of standing up for what you believe in. Rang De Basanti went on to become a commercial success and is considered a cult classic of Indian cinema.