Bollywood is known for its epic love stories, colorful song and dance numbers, and often happy endings where the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after. However, some of the most powerful and memorable Bollywood films are the ones that don’t end on a cheerful note, but rather leave the audience in tears with a tragic, heartbreaking finale. These sad endings can sometimes feel more true to life, as not every love story concludes with “happily ever after” in the real world.
Here is my list of the 12 best Bollywood movies with tragic, tearjerker endings. Get your tissues ready, because these films are sure to make you cry by the time the credits roll. I’ve focused on relatively more recent movies from the last few decades rather than going too far back in Bollywood history.
1. Devdas (2002)
One of the most famous tragic romances in Bollywood history, Devdas is based on a 1917 Bengali novel and has been adapted for the screen multiple times. But the lavish 2002 version directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and Madhuri Dixit is considered the definitive take on the story.
Devdas is a wealthy law graduate who returns home after studying in London. He plans to marry his childhood sweetheart Paro (Aishwarya Rai), but his family rejects her due to her lower social status. A heartbroken Devdas descends into alcoholism to numb the pain, while the lovelorn Paro is married off to a wealthier man. Devdas finds some solace with a kind-hearted courtesan named Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit), but he never gets over losing Paro.
In the tragic ending, Devdas drinks himself to death, collapsing at Paro’s doorstep. Paro, still very much in love with him, rushes out to see him but it’s too late. As Devdas dies in Paro’s arms, she breaks down weeping over his body, mourning the love they could never fully realize together. It’s an iconic ending that exemplifies the heights of Bollywood melodrama and tragedy.
2. Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)
Kal Ho Naa Ho (“Tomorrow May Never Come”) is another Shah Rukh Khan tearjerker, though it starts out as more of a romantic comedy. Naina (Preity Zinta) is a serious MBA student living in New York City with her Punjabi family. Her life changes when she meets her new neighbor Aman (Shah Rukh Khan), a charming, lively young man who encourages Naina to enjoy life and pursue her crush on her best friend Rohit (Saif Ali Khan).
However, it’s eventually revealed that Aman has a terminal heart condition and doesn’t have long to live. Knowing this, he hides his own growing feelings for Naina and instead plays matchmaker to bring her and Rohit together, not wanting her to suffer by falling for someone she can’t have a future with.
The movie ends with Aman fading away on a hospital bed as Naina and Rohit get married. He leaves them a final letter congratulating them on their wedding. As Naina reads the heartfelt letter, she breaks down crying, realizing that Aman loved her all along. The film ends with her standing alone on the Brooklyn Bridge, the place Aman brought her at the start of the movie, remembering him as she wipes away tears. Though Aman succeeded in bringing Naina and Rohit together, it’s clear a piece of her heart will always belong to him.
3. Rang De Basanti (2006)
Rang De Basanti is a patriotic drama that takes a tragic turn. A British film student named Sue (Alice Patten) comes to India to make a documentary about the Indian revolutionaries who fought against the British rule in the 1920s. She casts a group of fun-loving Delhi university students to portray the historical figures.
As Sue and the students delve into India’s revolutionary past, they become increasingly socially and politically aware. The carefree friends are galvanized into activism after the death of Ajay (R. Madhavan), a pilot in the Indian Air Force. Ajay had been working to expose corruption in the military, but the government claims his plane crash was an accident and refuses to investigate.
The students decide to fight the system and avenge Ajay’s death by assassinating the corrupt Defense Minister. In a violent confrontation with authorities at the radio station, the remaining friends – Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor – are all gunned down by police and military. The film ends with a tragic but inspiring montage intercutting between the deaths of the modern-day students and the revolutionaries they portrayed, showing how both groups sacrificed their lives for their country.
4. Ghajini (2008)
Ghajini stars Aamir Khan as Sanjay Singhania, a once-successful businessman seeking to avenge the murder of his beloved fiancée Kalpana (Asin). The twist is that due to a severe head injury inflicted by Kalpana’s killers, Sanjay suffers from short-term memory loss and can’t remember anything for more than 15 minutes.
The film moves back and forth between the present-day narrative of Sanjay hunting down the villains, and flashbacks showing his romance with the vivacious, do-gooder Kalpana. Through his investigation, Sanjay discovers that Kalpana was killed for trying to expose a human trafficking ring led by the ruthless Ghajini (Pradeep Rawat).
In the climax, Sanjay finally faces off against Ghajini, getting his revenge. However, he is mortally wounded in the process. As he lies dying, Kalpana appears to him in a vision, and the two are reunited in death. The film ends with Sanjay collapsing on the same spot where Kalpana died, as his police officer friend finds photos of the couple in happier times. It’s implied that Sanjay is at peace now that he has avenged his love and can finally be with her again, even if only in the afterlife.
5. Rockstar (2011)
In Rockstar, Ranbir Kapoor plays Janardhan, a small-town boy who dreams of becoming a famous musician. He’s told that all great artists have suffered in love, so he sets out to have his heart broken to inspire his music. He pursues Heer (Nargis Fakhri), a free-spirited girl from a wealthy family, and they fall in love.
However, Heer is already engaged to another man chosen by her parents. On top of that, she is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Not wanting to hurt her family, Heer pushes Janardhan away and marries her fiancé. The heartbreak fuels Janardhan’s music and he becomes a rock star, channeling his pain into his songs.
Heer and Janardhan reconnect and consummate their relationship at one point, but Heer’s deteriorating health means they can’t truly be together. In the end, Heer dies alone in a hospital in Prague. The film concludes with a grief-stricken Janardhan singing at a concert, having lost his muse and true love forever. The message seems to be that great art may come from great suffering, but that suffering is still devastatingly painful.
6. Raanjhanaa (2013)
In Raanjhanaa, Dhanush plays Kundan, a Hindu boy in the city of Benares who has been in love with his Muslim neighbor Zoya (Sonam Kapoor) since they were children. Zoya likes Kundan too, but her family sends her away to study in Delhi, where she falls in love with a student political leader named Akram (Abhay Deol).
Kundan is heartbroken but still helps Zoya marry Akram against her family’s wishes. However, political tensions and communal riots in the city lead to Akram’s death. Kundan helps Zoya flee to safety, and they get married so that she can hide her identity and pregnancy.
However, Zoya only sees Kundan as a friend, not a romantic partner. She grows increasingly depressed and eventually commits suicide, unable to bear the grief of losing Akram. The film ends with Kundan dying by suicide as well, jumping into the Ganges river. He narrates that he’s happy to die for Zoya, even though she never loved him back in the same way. It’s a heartbreaking ending showing the dangers of one-sided love and political unrest.
7. Aashiqui 2 (2013)
A spiritual successor to the 1990 musical hit Aashiqui, Aashiqui 2 is another story of a romance complicated by addiction and fame. Rahul (Aditya Roy Kapur) is a successful singer-songwriter who has become an alcoholic. He meets Aarohi (Shraddha Kapoor), a bar singer with a beautiful voice, and falls in love with her. He helps her become a famous pop star, but grows increasingly jealous and insecure as her fame eclipses his own.
Rahul’s drinking gets worse and he starts to hurt Aarohi as well as himself. He goes to rehab but relapses. Finally realizing that he is only holding Aarohi back, Rahul leaves her and later commits suicide so that she can move on with her life and career without him.
The film ends with a grieving Aarohi singing at a concert, wearing Rahul’s lucky ring. She imagines him sitting in the audience smiling at her. It’s implied that she has finally found success and peace, but that a part of her will always love and miss Rahul despite the pain he caused her. The tragedy is that Rahul couldn’t overcome his demons and be there to share in Aarohi’s happiness.
8. Lootera (2013)
Set in the 1950s, Lootera stars Ranveer Singh as Varun, a mysterious archaeologist who comes to stay at the mansion of a wealthy Bengali zamindar (landowner) and his daughter Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). Varun and Pakhi fall in love, but Varun is actually a con man planning to steal the family’s priceless artwork.
Varun ends up betraying Pakhi and fleeing with the paintings. A heartbroken Pakhi retreats to a snowy town in the mountains. Varun tracks her down months later, now gravely ill with tuberculosis and wanting to return the paintings and apologize. Pakhi nurses him back to health and they rekindle their romance.
However, the police finally catch up with Varun. In the heart-wrenching climax, a dying Varun takes the blame for the theft and convinces Pakhi to turn him in, knowing he doesn’t have long to live anyway. He dies in Pakhi’s arms in the snow as the police approach, leaving her sobbing over his body. The ending suggests that Varun truly loved Pakhi and redeemed himself for his crimes in the end, but they could never truly be together because of the mistakes of his past.
9. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013)
Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in violent, faction-ridden villages in Gujarat. Ram (Ranveer Singh) is the son of a Hindu crime lord, while Leela (Deepika Padukone) is the daughter of the rival Muslim clan. The two fall passionately in love despite their families’ blood feud.
Much like in the original play, Ram and Leela secretly get married but their relationship causes chaos and bloodshed between their clans. In the film’s version of events, Ram and Leela are eventually cornered by their gun-toting families and goaded into shooting each other to end the cycle of violence. In a twist on the original tragic ending, it’s revealed that Ram and Leela intentionally fired blanks at each other, faking their deaths.
The two lovers are shown meeting in secret on a beach, where Ram proposes that they run away and start a new life together. However, in a gut-punch of a final scene, it’s revealed that Ram and Leela really did shoot each other after all. The “happy ending” was just an illusion playing out in their dying moments. In reality, the two lie dead on the ground, having sacrificed their love and lives for their families’ feud.
10. Haider (2014)
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider is a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set amidst the insurgency in Kashmir in the 1990s. Shahid Kapoor stars as the title character, a young student who returns home to Kashmir after his father disappears and his mother Ghazala (Tabu) marries his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon).
Haider sets out to uncover the mystery of his father’s disappearance and exact revenge, descending into madness and violence along the way. The film combines a classic tale of familial betrayal with commentary on the politics and human rights abuses in Kashmir by the Indian armed forces and militants.
In the end, Haider learns that his uncle Khurram had his father killed so he could take over his political position and marry Ghazala. Haider kills Khurram but is shot in the process. The film ends with a dying Haider in his mother’s arms in the snow, begging her to sing him a lullaby from his childhood. As Ghazala sings through her tears, Haider dies and the screen fades to red, then white, evoking the bloodshed and innocence lost in Kashmir.
11. Fitoor (2016)
Fitoor is a Bollywood adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Noor (Aditya Roy Kapur) is a poor Kashmiri boy who falls in love with the wealthy and beautiful Firdaus (Katrina Kaif). Firdaus’ mother Begum Hazrat (Tabu) is a jilted bride who was abandoned at the altar and has become bitter and manipulative.
Begum Hazrat takes an interest in Noor and funds his education and art career, shaping him into a “suitable match” for Firdaus. However, when Noor returns to Kashmir as an adult to marry Firdaus, Begum Hazrat cruelly separates the couple, just as she was once robbed of her own chance at love.
Firdaus goes ahead with an arranged marriage to a Pakistani diplomat, while a heartbroken Noor realizes that Begum Hazrat had been manipulating him and Firdaus as pawns in her own game of revenge. The film ends tragically with Firdaus and Noor meeting one last time in the snow. Firdaus tells Noor she will always love him before they go their separate ways, both to unhappy fates, as a tearful Begum Hazrat looks on. The ending suggests that Begum Hazrat’s bitterness and need for revenge ultimately destroyed the happiness of the young couple and perpetuated a cycle of heartbreak.
12. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (“This Heart is Complicated”) is a romantic drama about unrequited love and the friend zone. Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) is a fun-loving singer who falls for the free-spirited Alizeh (Anushka Sharma). However, Alizeh is still in love with her ex-boyfriend Ali (Fawad Khan)
and only sees Ayan as a close friend.
Ayan and Alizeh share a deep bond and connection, but Alizeh makes it clear that she doesn’t reciprocate Ayan’s romantic feelings. Ayan tries to move on by dating and later marrying Saba (Aishwarya Rai), a poet who is older than him. However, his heart still yearns for Alizeh.
In a tragic twist, Alizeh is diagnosed with cancer. She spends her final days with Ayan, who takes care of her and tries to make her happy. In the heartbreaking climax, Alizeh dies in Ayan’s arms, finally confessing that she loved him all along, but didn’t want to ruin their friendship by saying it.
The film ends with a grief-stricken Ayan scattering Alizeh’s ashes in the mountains where they had shared happy times together. He acknowledges in a voiceover that perhaps the timing was never right for them, but he will always love her. The ending suggests that not all love stories have a happy ending, and that sometimes the greatest love is one that remains unrequited or unfulfilled.
These 12 Bollywood movies with heartbreaking endings are some of the most powerful and memorable films in recent years. While Bollywood is often associated with happily-ever-afters, these movies prove that sometimes a tragic ending can be even more impactful and thought-provoking. They deal with heavy themes like unrequited love, loss, betrayal, and the harsh realities of life, leaving the audience in tears and reflecting on the characters’ journeys long after the credits roll.
So next time you’re in the mood for a Bollywood movie that will give you all the feels, consider checking out one of these films with famously tragic endings.
