Finding an appropriate movie title that makes sense and works well for a movie is not an easy task. The writer usually suggests or comes up with the perfect title, but if the other members of the film unit don’t find it compelling, it can be a difficult task. The criteria for selecting and settling on a movie title include that it should flow naturally with the narration, be brief, memorable, and relatable to the audience. When our Bollywood filmmakers are unable to come up with a fresh title for their movie, they frequently resort to using one that has already been used in the past. In some cases, a movie title has been used numerous times, but we as viewers lose track of these titles and how frequently they have been used over the years. The top 10 straight Bollywood movie titles that our filmmakers most frequently used are listed below.
(Note: While some movie titles’ spelling may not be exactly similar but meant the same, the selection criteria for the list are a minimum of six times. Please excuse us for not finding posters for every movie; sequels have been left off the list.)
1. Insaaf – 9 Times
Insaaf has been used by our filmmakers a good nine times, making it one of the most frequently used Bollywood movie titles ever. Insaaf was first made into a motion picture in 1925, and then it was made again in 1937 with Leela Chitnis as the lead. Director Phani Majumdar once more used the name Insaaf in 1946, this time with Swarnlata and Navin Yagnik. Insaaf, starring Ajit and Nalini Jaywant, was produced by Kedar Kapoor in 1956. Insaaf, an action drama starring Prithviraj Kapoor and Dara Singh, was released in 1966. Later, in 1973, Pran, Waheeda Rehman, Tanuja, and Vijay Arora appeared in the movie Insaf, and Mukul Anand’s action-thriller Insaaf, which marked Vinod Khanna’s comeback, was released in 1987. Insaaf’s title was used once more in the films Akshay Kumar & Shilpa Shetty in 1997 and Sanjay Suri, Dino Morea, and Namrata Shirodkar in 2004.
2. Laila Majnu – 8 Times
The legendary Laila Majnu love story is among the top 10 Bollywood film titles, as might be expected. In numerous Indian languages, this title has been adapted for the big screen. Even though the title has occasionally been modified by a prefix or suffix, Laila Majnu has endured. The phrase “Laila Majnu” was first used three times during the silent era, and then again in the 1941 film Laila Majnu by Ahmed Lucknawi. The most notable of these was actor-director Nazir’s Laila Majnu (1945), which he and Swarnlata starred in and enjoyed a silver jubilee at the box office. Then came Laila Majnu, starring Shammi Kapoor and Nutan.Then came Laila Majnu, a 1953 film starring Shammi Kapoor and Nutan and directed by K. Amarnath, which was followed by H.S. Rawail’s 1976 film Rishi Kapoor and Ranjeeta Kaur, a newcomer. Director Sajid Ali last used the name Laila Majnu in 2018, for a film starring Avinash Tiwary and Tripti Dimri.
3. Inteqam – 8 Times
The title of Intaqam, which was used eight times by various directors, is listed among the top 10 Bollywood film titles. To start, it was first used in 1930 during the silent era by director K.P. Dave in a film starring Sultana and Eddie Billimoria. H.R. Desai directed the 1931 film Intaqam, which was also known as Debts of Honour to audiences in English-speaking countries. Though not much is known about the 1933 film Intaqam directed by J.K. Nanda, the sequels with the same name were well-liked. Intaquam, directed by R.K. Nayyar and starring Sadhana & Sanjay Khan, was a huge success in 1969 and featured superhit songs by Laxmikant – Pyarelal.The revenge drama Intaqaam (1988), starring Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor, and Aslam Azmi’s Inteqam (2001), starring Hareesh, Akshay Anand, and Pooja Dadwal, came 19 years apart. Inteqam: The Perfect Game, directed by Pankaj Parashar and starring Manoj Bajpayee, Isha Koppikar, and Nethra Raghuraman, was the eighth film to use the title.
4. Heer Ranjha – 7 Times
Heer Ranjha is another fabled love story that has been told since the beginning of time. We are aware of seven Bollywood films that have used the title Heer Ranjha. When a certain style of film did well at the box office, it was customary to copy it, which led to a rash of films with the same name or plot coming out during the silent era. Heer Ranjha (1929) by director R.S. Choudhury, starring Ruby Meyers and Dinshaw Bilimoria, was a huge success. Heer Ranjha (1932) by director A.R. Kardar, starring Rafiq Ghaznavi and Anwari, was also well-liked. Though little is known about the 1948 film Heer Ranjha, which starred Mumtaz Shanti, 22 years later, in 1970, Chetan Anand’s remake of the same name, in which Raaj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh played the titular roles, became a smash hit. The film is renowned for both Madan Mohan’s top-charting songs and the great Kaifi Azmi’s dialogue, which was written in verse. The 1992 film Heer Ranjha, directed by Harmesh Malhotra, tried to recapture the same magic with Anil Kapoor and Sridevi, but it failed at the box office.
5. Kismat – 7 Times
Baburao Patel, a silent film director, first used the title Kismat or Kismet in 1932. The title was used a second time for the smash hit movie Kismet starring Ashok Kumar and directed by Gyan Mukherjee, which went on to shatter all previous records at the box office. Following Manmohan Desai’s superhit action-thriller Kismat in 1969 with Biswajeet and Babita, Nanabhai Bhatt’s Kismet debuted in 1956 and starred Rajan, Nishi, Gope, and Helen. Once more in 1980, Mithun Chakraborty and Ranjeeta starred in the movie Kismat. Harmesh Malhotra used the name Kismat once more in 1995 for a movie with Govinda and Mamta Kulkarni, and again in 2004 for a movie with Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra.
6. Toofan – 7 Times
Another popular Hindi movie title used by our Bollywood filmmakers is Toofan. Although it was also used as a prefix and suffix to create other titles like Toofan Mail, Toofan Queen, and Aandhi Toofan, Aaya Toofan, Bijlee Aur Toofan, etc., director Bhagwati Prasad Mishra first used the title Toofan in the silent era in 1931. The title was then used once more in 1940, once again in 1951 with Pran and Pratima, and once more in 1969 by director Radhakant with Dara Singh and Anita. In 1975, a different Toofan movie starring Vikram, Priyadarshini, Jagdeep, and Jeevan was released. Then came Ketan Desai’s Amitabh Bachchan-starring film Toofan, which underwhelmed at the box office, and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s sports drama Toofaan in 2021.
7. Dushman – 6 Times
According to us, the word “Dushman” was used a total of six times. The other titles all had the same spelling, with the exception of Rajesh Khanna’s Dushmun (1972), which had a ‘U’ in place of a ‘A’. The film Dushman, starring K.L. Saigal and Leela Desai, was first released by New Theatres in 1939 under the direction of Nitin Bose. The title was first used in the 1950 film Phani Majumdar, starring Sheikh Mukhtar, Renuka Devi, and Leela Chitnis. The title Dushman was also used for the 1957 action film by director Raj Rishi, starring Dev Anand and Usha Kiran, and was used a further five times in the 1990 Mithun Chakraborty and Mandakini starrer by director Shakti Samanta. Tanuja Chandra’s Kajol, Sanjay Dutt, and Ashutosh Rana starrer, produced by Pooja Bhatt, was the last film to bear the Dushman title.
8. Raja Harishchandra – 6 Times
Raja Harishchandra, the first film in Indian cinema, was produced and directed by Dadasaheb Phalke. He extended the runtime of his own film, which he remade with the same title but a longer length than the original. D.D. Dabke, Phalke’s cinematographer and actor who appeared in the first two films, made his own version of the same name in 1924. Another movie with the name Raja Harishchandra was released in 1928 and was directed by Y.D. Sarpotdar with Lalita Pawar in the lead role. In a 1952 film with a similar name, Prem Adib, Sumitra Devi, and Bipin Gupta starred under the direction of Raman Desai. The last time the name Raja Harishchandra was used was in 1979 by actor-turned-director Ashish Kumar, who also starred Neera, Abhi Bhattacharya, Bela Bose, and Bharat Bhushan in addition to playing the title role.
9. Anjaam – 6 Times
Our research team discovered as many as six instances of the name Anjaam. Director Kanjibhai Rathod used it for the first time in 1940, and then Shanti Kumar used it in his 1952 film Anjam, which starred Premnath, Vyjayantimala, Kuldip Kaur, and Dulari. In 1968, actor Shahida and director Shiv Kumar’s Anjam featured Shahida and actor Feroz Khan. The action/crime drama Anjaam, directed by Kishore Khanna, featured Nutan, Sachin, and Sarika in the lead roles. The name Anjaam was then used in 1987 and 1994, on two more occasions. Hema Malini, Shashi Kapoor, Rajan Sippy, and Parijat played in T. Hariharan’s 1987 film Anjaam.Hema Malini, Shashi Kapoor, Rajan Sippy, and Parijat starred in T. Hariharan’s Anjaam from 1987, while Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, and Deepak Tijori starred in Rahul Rawail’s Anjaam from 1994.
10. Zindagi – 6 Times
Finally, we were wrong about how frequently Zindagi was used. It has only been used six times, but many other titles with multiple words have included it, according to our analysis of all the titles. The 1940 film Zindagi, starring K.L. Saigal and Jamuna, was the first to use the title. Director Amiya Chakrabarty’s social drama Zindagi, starring Ashok Kumar and Nalini Jaywant, debuted two years later in 1942. Zindagi, starring Geeta Bali and directed by C.L. Dheer, came out in 1956, while Gemini’s well-known family drama Zindagi, starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, and Vyjayantimala, came out in 1964. The 1976 film Zindagi by Ravi Tandon starred Sanjeev Kumar, Mala Sinha, Vinod Mehra, and Moushumi Chatterjee.And finally, the 2000 film Zindagi, directed by Suraj Prakash, starred Mukesh Khanna, Zarina Wahab, and Kiran Kumar for the sixth time.