The Legend of Bhagat Singh

The Legend of Bhagat Singh is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language biographical period film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. The film is about Bhagat Singh, a Freedom Fighter who fought for Indian independence along with fellow members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. It features Ajay Devgan as the titular character along with Sushant Singh, D. Santosh and Akhilendra Mishra as the other lead characters. Raj Babbar, Farida Jalal and Amrita Rao play supporting roles. The film chronicles Singh's life from his childhood where he witnesses the Jallianwala Bagh massacre until the day he was hanged to death — 23 March 1931.

The film was produced by Kumar and Ramesh Taurani's Tips Industries on a budget of ₹ 200–250 million (about US$4.2–5.2 million in 2002).[b] The story and dialogue were written by Santoshi and Piyush Mishra respectively, while Anjum Rajabali drafted the screenplay. K. V. Anand, V. N. Mayekar and Nitin Chandrakant Desai were in charge of the cinematography, editing and production design respectively. Principal photography took place in Agra, Manali, Mumbai and Pune from January to May 2002. The soundtrack and film score is composed by A. R. Rahman, and the songs "Mera Rang De Basanti" and "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna" being well-received in particular.

The Legend of Bhagat Singh was released on 7 June 2002 to generally positive reviews, with the direction, story, screenplay, technical aspects and the performances of Devgan and Sushant receiving the most attention. However, the film underperformed at the box office, grossing only ₹ 129 million (US$2.7 million in 2002).[b] It went on to win two National Film Awards – Best Feature Film in Hindi and Best Actor for Devgn – and three Filmfare Awards from eight nominations.