50 Best Indian Gangster and Mafia movies
by abtheboss | created - 17 Mar 2018 | updated - 12 Mar 2022 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Nayakan (1987)
Not Rated | 145 min | Crime, Drama
A common man's struggles against a corrupt police force put him on the wrong side of the law. He becomes a don, who is loved and respected by many, but his growing power and influence exact a heavy toll.
Director: Mani Ratnam | Stars: Kamal Haasan, Saranya Ponvannan, Delhi Ganesh, Janakaraj
Votes: 23,004
2. Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
Not Rated | 321 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A clash between Sultan and Shahid Khan leads to the expulsion of Khan from Wasseypur, and ignites a deadly blood feud spanning three generations.
Director: Anurag Kashyap | Stars: Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Richa Chadha
Votes: 103,905
3. Don (1978)
Not Rated | 166 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Don, a wanted criminal, dies in a police chase. DSP D'Silva is the only one who knows about his death, and to get hold of the gang he trains Don-lookalike Vijay. But Vijay faces danger from the police and from within the gang.
Director: Chandra Barot | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran Sikand, Iftekhar
Votes: 12,763
4. Satya (1998)
Not Rated | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An innocent man is embroiled in underworld after being falsely charged and sets out to punish the perpetrators who subjected his life to misery.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Stars: J.D. Chakravarthi, Manoj Bajpayee, Urmila Matondkar, Paresh Rawal
Votes: 16,720
5. Vaastav: The Reality (1999)
Not Rated | 145 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Consequences force an innocent man to get involved in crime after making an error.
Director: Mahesh Manjrekar | Stars: Sanjay Dutt, Namrata Shirodkar, Reema Lagoo, Shivaji Satam
Votes: 14,774
6. Baasha (1995)
Not Rated | 145 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An auto driver, Manikam, desperately tries to hide his dark underworld side to keep his promise to his father.
Director: Suresh Krishna | Stars: Rajinikanth, Nagma, Raghuvaran, Vijayakumar
Votes: 11,492
7. Vada Chennai (2018)
Not Rated | 164 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young carrom player in north Chennai becomes a reluctant participant in a war between two warring gangsters.
Director: Vetrimaaran | Stars: Dhanush, Ameer Sultan, Radha Ravi, Daniel Balaji
Votes: 19,665
8. Shiva (1989)
Not Rated | 161 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Shiva is disgusted by the corruption in and around his new college, and along with his friends, he decides to take a stand against the status quo.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Stars: Nagarjuna Akkineni, Amala Akkineni, Raghuvaran, J.D. Chakravarthi
Votes: 3,898
9. Agneepath (1990)
Not Rated | 174 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young boy's quest for revenge leads him to become a gangster as an adult, and with each day he becomes more and more like his enemies. Can he find vengeance and redemption?
Director: Mukul Anand | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavi, Neelam Kothari
Votes: 9,463
10. Maqbool (2003)
Not Rated | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The intrigue of the Shakespearean tragedy 'Macbeth' is transposed to the Mumbai underworld.
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj | Stars: Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah
Votes: 12,024
11. Company (2002)
Not Rated | 142 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A small-time gangster named Chandu teams up with Malik, a low-level enforcer for a criminal syndicate. Together they eliminate all their enemies, becoming the most feared gangsters in Mumbai.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Stars: Ajay Devgn, Mohanlal, Manisha Koirala, Seema Biswas
Votes: 16,162
12. Black Friday (2004)
Not Rated | 143 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A film about the investigations following the 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved --police, conspirators, victims, middlemen.
Director: Anurag Kashyap | Stars: Kay Kay Menon, Pawan Malhotra, Aditya Srivastav, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Votes: 22,008 | Gross: $0.03M
13. Parinda (1989)
Not Rated | 154 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man's friend, a police officer, is assassinated by gangsters in broad daylight. He discovers that his elder brother works in the same gang and decides to avenge his friend's death by infiltrating the gang.
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra | Stars: Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Madhuri Dixit
Votes: 3,740
14. Omkara (2006)
Not Rated | 155 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A politically-minded enforcer's misguided trust in his lieutenant leads him to suspect his wife of infidelity in this adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Othello'.
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj | Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma
Votes: 22,119 | Gross: $0.79M
15. Jigarthanda (2014)
Not Rated | 171 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
An aspiring director targets a ruthless gangster because he wants to make a violent gangster film. His discreet attempts to research the gangster fail miserably. Finally when he gets caught snooping, things hit the fan.
Director: Karthik Subbaraj | Stars: Siddharth, Bobby Simha, Lakshmi Menon, Nassar
Votes: 13,551
16. Sarkar (2005)
Not Rated | 124 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Subhash Nagre runs a parallel government in the city where he has a cult following. When his enemies plot to murder him, his son takes charge and stands up against them.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon, Supriya Pathak
Votes: 17,442
17. Vikram Vedha (2017)
Not Rated | 147 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Vikram, a no-nonsense police officer, accompanied by Simon, his partner, is on the hunt to capture Vedha, a smuggler and a murderer. Vedha tries to change Vikram's life, which leads to a conflict.
Directors: Gayatri, Pushkar, Gowtham Selvaraj | Stars: Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi, Shraddha Srinath, Kathir
Votes: 50,558
18. Pudhu Pettai (2006)
Not Rated | 168 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After running away from his home, Kumar falls in with a gang and slowly rises through the ranks of the criminal underworld.
Director: K. Selvaraghavan | Stars: Dhanush, Sneha, Sonia Agarwal, Azhagam Perumal
Votes: 7,923
19. Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010)
Not Rated | 134 min | Action, Crime, Drama
As a smuggler rises to power in in 1970s Mumbai, a younger gangster seeks to overthrow him and a police officer is caught in the middle.
Director: Milan Luthria | Stars: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Prachi Desai
Votes: 18,696
20. Pokiri (2006)
Not Rated | 164 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A money-minded criminal has to deal with two rival gangs as well as an evil cop threatening his girlfriend.
Director: Puri Jagannadh | Stars: Mahesh Babu, Ileana D'Cruz, Prakash Raj, Nassar
Votes: 15,599
21. Thalapathi (1991)
Not Rated | 157 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An orphan named Surya raised in a slum befriends a good crime boss named Devaraj and works for him. Their existence is threatened when a new honest district collector arrives.
Director: Mani Ratnam | Stars: Rajinikanth, Mammootty, Shobana, Arvind Swamy
Votes: 13,248
22. Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022)
TV-MA | 152 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Duped and sold to a brothel, a young woman fearlessly reclaims her power, using underworld connections to preside over the world she was once a pawn in.
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Stars: Alia Bhatt, Shantanu Maheshwari, Vijay Raaz, Indira Tiwari
Votes: 61,931
23. Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007)
Not Rated | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An account of the gangster Maya Dolas and his gang which terrorized Mumbai City, and the ensuing standoff between Mumbai Police and the gang on 16 November 1991.
Director: Apoorva Lakhia | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Arbaaz Khan
Votes: 10,902 | Gross: $0.29M
24. Aaranya Kaandam (2010)
Not Rated | 126 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A mob boss must deal with a disgruntled mistress and a vanishing bag of cocaine.
Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja | Stars: Sampath Raj, Jackie Shroff, Ravi Krishna, Yasmin Ponnappa
Votes: 5,395
25. Khalnayak (1993)
Not Rated | 190 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
A prison guard goes undercover as a dancer to try and recapture an escaped criminal and restore her police inspector boyfriend's reputation.
Director: Subhash Ghai | Stars: Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff, Rakhee Gulzar
Votes: 3,729
26. D-Day (I) (2013)
Not Rated | 153 min | Action, Thriller
A team of experts dispatched to bring in The Most Wanted Man in India almost achieve the unthinkable ... until something goes horribly wrong.
Director: Nikkhil Advani | Stars: Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Shruti Haasan
Votes: 10,260
27. Rakta Charitra (2010)
Not Rated | 125 min | Action, Biography, Crime
A killer bandit decides to become a politician in order to avenge deaths in his family.
Director: Ram Gopal Varma | Stars: Vivek Oberoi, Shatrughan Sinha, Sudeep, Abhimanyu Singh
Votes: 4,738
28. Gangster (2006)
Not Rated | 123 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Simran, who relocates to Seoul, is distraught when Daya, a gangster, re-enters her life. She has to make a choice between him and her lover Akash, who is a singer at an Indian restaurant.
Director: Anurag Basu | Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Shiney Ahuja, Emraan Hashmi, Gulshan Grover
Votes: 6,677
29. Big B (2007)
130 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Four brothers hunt for the killer and the truth behind their loving foster mother who was murdered in cold blood, .
Director: Amal Neerad | Stars: Mammootty, Manoj K. Jayan, Bala, Sumit Naval
Votes: 4,167
30. Soodhu Kavvum (2013)
Not Rated | 135 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Das, with his team, kidnap Arumai, son of a politician, who has been planning his own kidnapping to extract money from his father. Problems arise, when an insane cop is brought to handle the case.
Director: Nalan Kumarasamy | Stars: Vijay Sethupathi, Sanchita Shetty, Radha Ravi, M.S. Bhaskar
Votes: 11,801
31. Kaminey (2009)
Not Rated | 130 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The desperate lives of two estranged twin brothers converge over missing drugs, politics, racial prejudice, corrupt cops and an unplanned pregnancy.
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj | Stars: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Deb Mukherjee, Shivkumar Subramaniam
Votes: 18,137 | Gross: $1.29M
32. Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster (2011)
118 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Hired to kill a nobleman, the assassin instead falls for the former's unstable wife.
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia | Stars: Jimmy Shergill, Mahie Gill, Randeep Hooda, Shreya Narayan
Votes: 4,394
33. Ab Tak Chhappan (2004)
Not Rated | 129 min | Crime, Drama
An honest encounter specialist's life begins to change with the arrival of a new police commissioner who has ties with a local don.
Director: Shimit Amin | Stars: Nana Patekar, Revathi, Yashpal Sharma, Mohan Agashe
Votes: 9,666
34. Don (I) (2006)
Not Rated | 171 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Vijay is recruited by a police officer to masquerade as his lookalike Don, the leader of an international gang of smugglers. Things go wrong when the officer is killed and Vijay is left to fend for himself.
Director: Farhan Akhtar | Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Arjun Rampal, Isha Koppikar
Votes: 41,052 | Gross: $0.80M
35. Arindhum Ariyamalum (2005)
Not Rated | 132 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Unaware that Adhinarayanan, a goon, is actually his father, Sathya, a college boy, decides to file a police complaint against him and his adopted son, Kutti, for shooting his girlfriend Sandhya.
Director: Vishnuvardhan | Stars: Navdeep, Arya, Prakash Raj, Samiksha Oswal
Votes: 763
36. Don 2 (2011)
Not Rated | 148 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Don turns himself in and escapes with Vardhaan from prison, following which he recruits a team to steal currency printing plates from a bank in Berlin.
Director: Farhan Akhtar | Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Florian Lukas, Om Puri, Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Votes: 58,420 | Gross: $3.68M
37. Dheena (2001)
Not Rated | 167 min | Action, Drama
Dheena works for his brother Adhikesavan, a gangster, and is very close to him. However, things turn sour between them after a misunderstanding leads to the death of their sister.
Director: A.R. Murugadoss | Stars: Ajith Kumar, Suresh Gopi, Laila, Mahanadhi Shankar
Votes: 2,733
38. Billa (1980)
Not Rated | 175 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A village bumpkin poses as a Mafia don to uncover the gang.
Director: R. Krishnamurthy | Stars: Rajinikanth, Sripriya, K. Balaji, A.V.M. Rajan
Votes: 888
39. Billa (2007)
Not Rated | 130 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A cop chases international gangster Billa and happens to be the only one to see him die. He places Velu, Billa's lookalike, inside the gang to get information. But Velu is framed for killing the cop.
Director: Vishnuvardhan | Stars: Ajith Kumar, Nayanthara, Rahman, Namitha
Votes: 8,079
40. Raees (2017)
Not Rated | 143 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A bootlegger sets out to improve his community as a promising leader but falls in a political trap.
Director: Rahul Dholakia | Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Sunny Leone, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jaideep Ahlawat
Votes: 50,708 | Gross: $3.26M
41. Business Man (2012)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Surya arrives in Mumbai to revive the mafia and ends up making enemies who threaten his life.
Director: Puri Jagannadh | Stars: Mahesh Babu, Kajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj, Ayesha Shiva
Votes: 11,516
42. Chandni Bar (2001)
Not Rated | 150 min | Crime, Drama
A displaced woman is forced to become a beer-bar dancer, and sire children of a gangster.
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar | Stars: Tabu, Atul Kulkarni, Rajpal Naurang Yadav, Shri Vallabh Vyas
Votes: 2,793
44. D (2005)
107 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Deshu, a mechanic from Dubai, comes home to Mumbai, and gets embroiled in a crime by accident. The film shows his meteoric rise from common, law-abiding man to underworld kingpin.
Director: Vishram Sawant | Stars: Randeep Hooda, Chunky Pandey, Rukhsar Rehman, Isha Koppikar
Votes: 1,308
45. Shagird (2011)
Not Rated | 143 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A rookie cop questions the tactics of his superior, and attempts to track the abductors of his girlfriend.
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia | Stars: Nana Patekar, Mohit Ahlawat, Rimi Sen, Anurag Kashyap
Votes: 2,281
47. Aryan (1988)
181 min | Action, Drama
Dispossessed Brahmin Mohanlal priest moves to Bombay where he finds a new calling in the hitman business.
Directors: Priyadarshan, Priyadarshan | Stars: Mohanlal, Ramya Krishnan, Bob Christo, Milind Gawali
Votes: 389
48. Apaharan (2005)
Not Rated | 173 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Story of a tumultuous and complex relationship between a father (Mohan Agashe) and son (Ajay Devgan), set against the backdrop of a thriving kidnapping industry in the Hindi heartland of Bihar.
Director: Prakash Jha | Stars: Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Bipasha Basu, Ayub Khan
Votes: 5,208
49. Sadak (1991)
Not Rated | 134 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A taxi driver with a tragic past sees an opportunity for redemption when he encounters a woman sold into prostitution. Wanting to help her escape, he has to deal with the wrath of the brothel madam.
Director: Mahesh Bhatt | Stars: Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt, Deepak Tijori, Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Votes: 2,871
50. Kabali (2016)
Not Rated | 153 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A reformed gangster is released from prison and attempts to protect his family from his enemies.
Director: Pa. Ranjith | Stars: Rajinikanth, Winston Chao, Radhika Apte, Dhansika
Votes: 14,195
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