Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
A resilient farmer rallies his drought‑stricken village to wager their very survival in a high‑stakes cricket match against ruthless British officers, where victory means three years of tax relief and defeat spells starvation.
“Once upon a time in India”
Synopsis
Set in 1893 during British colonial rule in India, the story unfolds in a small village where Captain Russell, a tyrannical British officer, imposes an unprecedented land tax on the local population. The tax sparks outrage among the villagers, led by Bhuvan, a rebellious farmer who organizes them to publicly resist the new levy. In an attempt to resolve the conflict, Russell proposes an unconventional solution: a cricket match. As the sport is unfamiliar to the villagers, Bhuvan and his men accept the challenge on the condition that if they defeat Russell's team, the tax will be abolished.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 47+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Ballu SalujaShot by Anil MehtaScored by A R RahmanDesigned by Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Box Office
2001 · Box office
⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.6× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$8.1M
Opening week (7-day): $356K
Peak 34 theaters
Re-release box office
- 20022 theaters
- $19K($34K today)
Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation
Full synopsis
Also known as
- Lagaan - Es war einmal in Indiende
- Lagaanen
- Lagaan - C'era una volta in Indiait
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Cast & Crew
47 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Aamir Khan
as Bhuvan
Raghubir Yadav
as Bhura
Gracy Singh
as Gauri
Rachel Shelley
as Elizabeth Russell
Paul Blackthorne
as Captain Andrew Russell
Suhasini Mulay
as Yashoda
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
as Raja Puran Singh Chawla
Rajendra Gupta
as Mukhiya
Rajesh Vivek
as Guran
Raj Zutshi
as Ismail
Shri Vallabh Vyas
as Ishwar
Pradeep Ram Singh Rawat
as Deva Singh Sodhi
Supporting cast
25Akhilendra Mishra
as Arjan
Daya Shankar Pandey
as Goli
Yashpal Sharma
as Lakha
Amin Hajee
as Bagha
Aditya Lakhia
as Kachra
Javed Khan
as Ram Singh
A K Hangal
as Shambukaka
Amin Gazi
as Tipu
Anupam Shyam
as Namdeo
Raja Awasthi
as Ramprasad
Pramatesh Mehta
as Harikaka
John Rowe
as Col. Boyer
David Gant
as Maj. Warren
Thor Halland
as Captain Roberts
Jeremy Child
as Maj. Cotton
Chris England
as Yardley
Howard Lee
as Burton
Ben Nealon
as Lt. Smith
Simon Holmes
as Brooks
Jon House
as North
Neil Patrick
as Lt. Harrisson
Jamie Whitby Coles
as Lt. Wesson
Barry Hart
as Lt. Benson
Alex Shirtclliff
as Lt. Flynn
Amitabh Bachchan
as Narrator (voice)
Directors
1Writers
4Producers
1Other crew
6Parents Guide
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