Chak De! India

• Anjan Srivastav as Mr. Tripathi, the head Indian hockey official
• Vibha Chibber as Krishnaji, assistant coach for the Indian women's field hockey team
• Javed Khan as Sukhlal
• Mohit Chauhan as Uttam Singh, Kabir's former hockey teammate and friend
• Vivan Bhatena as Abimanyu Singh, Vice captain of the Indian national cricket team and Preeti's fiancé
• Nakul Vaid as Rakesh Sharma, Vidya's husband
• Joyshree Arora as Kabir's mother[12]
• Emily White as the Australian Field Hockey Goalie

A brief article about the victorious women's team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games inspired screenwriter Jaideep Sahni to create a film about the Indian women's hockey team,[13] and he modelled Kabir Khan on hockey coach Maharaj Krishan Kaushik.[14] After listening to the storyline Kaushik suggested that Sahani meet hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, who faced accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games.[15][16][17] Shah Rukh Khan stated in a speech delivered at the University of Edinburgh that the phrase Chak De! was originally "an inspirational martial cry that Sikh soldiers used while lifting logs in order to make bridges across rivers on their campaigns against their enemies. It implies the will to get up and get on with it."[18]

According to Sahani, he was unaware of Negi's plight while he wrote the script and any resemblance to Negi's life was coincidental.[19] Negi agreed, saying that he did not "want to hog the limelight. This movie is not a documentary of Mir Ranjan Negi's life. It is in fact the story of a team that becomes a winning lot from a bunch of hopeless girls".[20][21] Responding to media reports equating Kabir Khan with Negi, Sahani said: "Our script was written a year and a half back. It is very unfortunate that something, which is about women athletes, has just started becoming about Negi."[14]

Although Salman Khan was initially signed for the lead role, he later withdrew due to creative differences with director Shimit Amin.[22] Shah Rukh Khan (who had originally declined due to a scheduling conflict with Farhan Akhtar's Don (2006)) was later confirmed as Kabir Khan.[23] Khan accepted the role partly because he used to play hockey in college: "I feel hockey as a sport has been monstrously neglected in our country. I used to play the game during college. In fact, I was quite a good hockey player. So the role was a lot like going back to my past."[24] Some media sources called the actor's role offbeat, since it departed from his usual romantic image and included neither lip synched songs nor a single female lead.[7]

Casting of the 16 actresses as the hockey players took over six months. Amin described the process as "very, very difficult" and "very strenuous because the requirement was they had to play – and act". A four-month training camp was held where the girls learned the rules of the game, took acting lessons and followed a strict diet; safety precautions were also taken.[25] According to Amin, "Learning hockey is very tricky unlike, say, football. You have to know how to hold the stick, how to maneuver it, so it doesn't look fake on screen ... For those who were originally players, we had to make sure they were able to act as well. The dialogue was weighty; it isn't frivolous. It has to be delivered with a certain tone, in a certain manner". The actors, including Khan and the rest of the supporting cast, participated in a number of rehearsals and script readings before principal photography began.[7]

Kaushik and his team taught the crew "all [they] knew about hockey". In an interview, he later said that he "taught him (Sahni) everything about the game, starting from how the camp is conducted, how the girls come from different backgrounds and cultures, the psychological factors involved. Also how the coach faces pressure to select girls from different states and teams".[14] After Negi was suggested, the latter assembled a team of hockey players to train the actors.[14] He later said that he "trained the girls for six months. Waking up at 4, traveling from Kandivali to Churchgate. We would retire around 11 in the night. It was tiring. But we were on a mission ... They couldn't run; couldn't hold the hockey sticks. I ensured none of them [would have to] cut their nails or eyebrows (as the players do). The girls have worked very hard. I salute them".[15] Some of the actors, such as Chitrashi, Sandia, and Raynia, were cast because they were hockey players.[26]

Rob Miller was the sport action director, choreographing the sports scenes,[27][28] and worked with Negi to train the actors. About working with Khan, Negi recalled that everything was planned "including the penalty stroke that SRK missed. That shot alone took us nearly 20 hours as I was keen that it should be very realistic. I took the help of a lot of my former teammates. But more importantly, it was so easy working with SRK. He is unbelievably modest and was willing to do as many re-takes as we wanted".[16]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.[41] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[42]

In an NPR interview via affiliate WBUR-FM, Mumbai Mirror columnist Aseem Chhabra called Chak De! India "an example of a film that's been made within the framework of Bollywood and yet it is a very different film. It does take up some realistic issues, and what I really liked about the film was that the women who acted, you know, who are part of the team, each one of them got a chance. Their personality, their characters, were very well-written, and so, the superstar in the film was Shahrukh Khan, who was the coach of the team; he doesn't sort of take over the whole film. Every supporting character gets a role, and it's a very inspiring movie that really changed the mood in India. People loved it".[43] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film four out of five stars stating that it was a film of "great performances by a bunch of unknowns."[44] India Today called Chak De! India "the most feisty girl power movie to have come out of Bollywood ever."[45] Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu wrote, "At another level, Chak De is about women's liberation. It is one of the best feminist films of our times."[46] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Chak De's ... a winner all the way."[47] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express called the film "the most authentic, meticulously researched sports movie India has made".[48] In Kolkata's Telegraph, Bharathi S. Pradhan wrote that the film combines "an extremely well-knit screenplay with unrelentingly deft direction, 16 unknown, and not even glamorous, girls simply carried you with them, with one single known actor compelling you to watch Chak De India without blinking".[49] Jaspreet Pandohar of the BBC gave Chak De! India four out of five stars stating that "while the tale of the sporting underdog is hardly new, Jaideep Sahni's screenplay offers a rare look at a popular Indian sport often overshadowed by cricket."[50] Andy Webster of The New York Times wrote that the film gave a fresh look to the conventional underdog sports film, comparing its premise to the U.S. victory in the 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup.[51] Derek Elley of Variety called Chak De! India "a patriotic heartwarmer that scores some old-fashioned entertainment goals."[52] In The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wrote that the "technical credits are first rate with excellent cinematography, quicksilver editing, musical montages of practice and a fine use of locations."[53]

Michael Dequina of themoviereport.com was more critical of the film, giving it 2.5 out of four stars and calling it "a very familiar, very formula underdog sports movie with nothing to distinguish it from similar, equally slick Hollywood product."[54] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave Chak De! India two stars out of four, writing that the film uses "sports-movie conventions to address larger cultural and political issues, and while it doesn't miss a cliche, it also invests every one with vigorous conviction."[55] Although Subhash K. Jha gave the film 3.5 stars, calling it "a fairly predictable story" with dialogue "quite often the stuff bumper stickers are made of", he wrote that "Chak De! India is an outright winner" and "one of the finest sports-based dramas in living memory."[56] Khalid Mohamed gave the film 3.5 stars in the Hindustan Times stating that the film "may be predictable but compels you to root for a team of losers whom only an earth-angel can save from disastrous defeat".[57]

Apart from critics, Chak De! India tied with Taare Zameen Par for the Best Film of 2007 according to various Bollywood movie directors such as Madhur Bhandarkar, David Dhawan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Basu, and Sriram Raghavan.[58]

The film was mentioned in critic and author Shubhra Gupta's book, 50 Films That Changed Bollywood, 1995–2015.[59]

Due to the film's strong critical response, cinema halls reported 80% occupancy for its opening weekend.[38] Chak De! India topped the Indian box office during its first two weeks,[60] and played to full houses during its first two months.[61] The film was particularly successful in large cities.[61] Chak De! India was the third-highest-grossing film of 2007 in India, with domestic net earnings of ₹66,54,00,000 that year it was declared a box office 'Blockbuster'.[62] By the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed ₹102 crore ($27.05 million) worldwide, including ₹85.86 crore gross (₹66.54 crore net) in India and $3.94 million (₹15.76 crore) overseas.[63]