When the villain on screen became the real hero, from Darr to Agneepath, the villains looted the entire party.

A fixed formula was being followed in Indian cinema for years, where the hero of the film always followed the path of goodness and in the end used to eliminate the symbol of evil i.e. the villain. But in the history of Bollywood, some such films were also made, which completely changed this established pattern. In these films, the character of the villain was written in such a strong, dangerous and impressive manner that it overshadowed even the main hero of the film.

The audience in theaters whistled and clapped more for the villain’s entry scene, his acting and dialogues than for the hero. These characters changed the definition of villain forever. Let’s take a look at those 5 cult films of Bollywood where the villain proved to be the real hero of the film.

1. Darr (Darr – 1993)

Sunny Deol was in the lead role in the film ‘Darr’ directed by Yash Chopra, but even today this film is remembered for Shahrukh Khan’s passion, madness and his iconic dialogue “K-K-K Kiran”. Shahrukh Khan played the negative character of an obsessive lover named ‘Rahul Mehra’ in the film. This character proved to be the turning point of his career. His unmatched and ferocious performance on screen both scared the audience and won their hearts, due to which he emerged as the real star of the film.

2. Agneepath (2012)

In this remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s original film released in 1990, Hrithik Roshan played the lead role of ‘Vijay Dinanath Chauhan’. But the character that grabbed the most headlines as soon as the film was released was ‘Kancha Cheena’ played by Sanjay Dutt. This look of Sanjay Dutt with his head shaved, without eyebrows and with cruelty in his eyes and his scary smile looked so scary on the screen that even a big star like Hrithik Roshan started looking pale in front of him. This acting of Sanjay Dutt included Kancha Cheena in the list of the most cruel villains in the history of Bollywood.

3. Padmaavat (2018)

In this grand period drama film of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shahid Kapoor played the very noble and heroic character of Raja Ratan Singh. Despite this, Ranveer Singh stole the entire limelight of the film. Ranveer Singh brought alive the character of ‘Alauddin Khilji’, the cruel ruler of Delhi Sultanate, on screen. His eccentricity, aggressive body language and ferocious style were liked so much by the audience that the entire film seemed to revolve around him. Ranveer Singh received all-round praise for this role.

4. Omkara (Omkara – 2006)

Vishal Bhardwaj’s film ‘Omkara’ was based on Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’. Ajay Devgan played the lead and powerful character in the film, but the best performance of Saif Ali Khan’s career was seen in this film. Saif played the role of a very vicious, jealous and deceitful villain named Langda Tyagi in the film. His tone of voice, trimmed beard and demeanor stunned the audience. This negative role of Saif Ali Khan proved to be the biggest USP of the film.

5. Sholay (1975)

The biggest blockbuster in the history of Indian cinema, ‘Sholay’ featured the biggest superstars of that era like Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan in the role of heroes. But the character that became the life of this film was ‘Gabbar Singh’ played by Amjad Khan. The character of Gabbar Singh became so cult and popular that even today more people repeat Gabbar’s dialogues than the hero of the film. With his very first big role, Amjad Khan created a line of villain which no one has been able to cross till date.