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Over the years Hollywood has gotten us used to great gambling movies. It has enchanted us with movies about casinos and gambling to the point that one such movie, Rounders kicked off a worldwide amateur boom.
However, in the last 50 years or so, Bollywood has also had its share of great movies with gambling themes. In this article, we bring you our top 5 best Bollywood gambling films in chronological order.
Gambler (1971)
In this film directed by Amarjeet, the plot of the movie is based around the main character Raja. Raja is an orphan boy raised by a man named Master who makes his living from gambling and illegal activities. Under his mentorship Raja grows up to be a successful gambler who lives from his craft.
After a while, Raja decides to go on his own path and separates from his mentor. He starts a successful gambling business and things continue to go well for him until he meets Chandra, the woman he falls in love with. But the problem is Chandra is already promised to another man, and if Raja doesn’t do something soon, he will lose her forever.
The Gambler does a great job of depicting the world of gambling and mixing it up with real-life love drama.
The Great Gambler (1979)
In this 1979 thriller, the story follows a pro gambler named Jai. Jai, famous for never losing a gambling session, has been living from gambling for as long as he can remember. After a while, he catches the eye of a criminal boss Ratan Das who wants to partner with him.
Ratan’s plan is to arrange for Jai to play against wealthy people and win huge amounts of money from them. He then wants to blackmail those people and use this money as leverage. But not all goes as planned, and problems from Jai’s personal life also come into play.
The Great Gambler is a great action movie that portrays the real-life problems gamblers face.
Jannat (2008)
Jannat portrays the life of Arjun, a beginner gambler who eventually rises from playing cards to the world of illegal cricket gambling. He starts as a bookmaker but soon gets himself involved in match-fixing and player bribing. His goal is to make him and his partner Zoya as rich as possible.
Although Arjun starts making a lot of money from his illegal activities, he has less and less time for Zoya and his personal life. Eventually, he gets involved with a criminal organisation and things get even more complicated.
Jannat is, in the beginning, a card game movie, but soon turns into a real high-stakes drama with the elements of romance.
Teen Patti (2010)
Teen Patti is a movie about a college professor named Venkat who meets a British colleague named Percy. The two share a similar way of thinking about the theory of probability and decide to test this theory by playing card games in casinos.
To make things faster and more lucrative, Venkat employs a couple of his students to help him with this experiment. The theory proves like a correct one, and Venkat and his team win a lot of money from the casinos, after which he decides to try out the theory in a match against professional Teen Patti players.
While the movie didn’t get good grades from the critics, it’s still one of the most-watched gambling movies in Bollywood.
The Striker (2010)
The Striker is the only film from this list based on real-life events and the only Indian movie to be available to a broader audience on youtube on the day of its theatrical release.
It tells a story about a young boy, who loves to play the game of carrom while he tries to find his place in the suburbs of India. Thanks to his talent and his passion for the game he wins a major carrom tournament.
This results in him being recruited by the mafia, who want to take advantage of his skills to create a scheme that will make them a lot of money. Overwhelmed by the situation he has found himself in, he starts to lose control.
Tri Stiker is one of the best gambling movies in Bollywood history, mostly thanks to its accurate portrayal of a real-life gambling story.
ConclusionAlthough less famous, just like Hollywood, Bollywood has also had its share of great gambling movies. In these movies, the main characters have often had to gamble illegally to make money. Today thanks to cricket and kabaddi betting sites, Indian people can legally gamble online.
