Books or movies? Well, I sure know my answer but what about you? Do you enjoy it when books you love are adapted into movies? The answer to that depends on how the movie turns out in the end. As long as the movies do complete justice to the imagination of the book, they should be good to go. On that note, here’s a list of Hindi movies that were inspired by books and stories written by famous authors.

1.7 Khoon Maaf (2011)

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, 7 Khoon Maaf is a stunning adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s short story Susanna’s Seven Husbands. It may not be an entire novel but Susanna’s Seven Husbands has everything to be adapted into a feature film. The movie is about a femme fatale, Susanna Anna-Marie who kills seven men in her quest for love. She falls in love seven times and marries seven times. The first six when were a horror for her but the seventh, that’s suspense!

2. Devdas (2002)

The tale of the hopeless romantic Devdas is known to every Indian alike. The 1917 novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay has been adapted into films in several languages. There are around three versions in Hindi itself. The most popular one is the second version which was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in 2002. The film stars Shahrukh Khan as the titular lead and Aishwariya Rai and Madhuri Dixit played the female leads. The film was a big success at the box office. The latest version of the reputed novel is directed by Anurag Kashyap and has a different approach. Read more about it below.

Read: What makes DevD stand out from Devdas

3. Aisha (2011)

Aisha starring Sonam Kapoor is the film adaptation of Emma, Jane Austen’s novel published in 1815. But don’t worry, Aisha is not set in a historic era! The novel has been well adapted for the current time frame. Aisha is a high-class Delhi girl who takes a great interest in matchmaking. Her disregard for what others want slowly starts to affect her friends and things begin to go downhill for Aisha. The movie is a fun and exciting watch for almost anyone.

4. Parineeta (2005)

Parineeta is yet another movie adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s famous Bengali novel, Parineeta. The movie marked the Bollywood debut of the sensational actress Vidya Balan and brought together Bollywood actors like Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt under one roof. Parineeta, set in the year 1914 is a romantic tale that explores the class divide of India during the pre-independence era.

5. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that brought international attention to India. The movie is however loosely based on the 2005 novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. The movie had won the Best Film for the year at the 2009 Academy Awards. The movie also won the Academy Award for Best Original Score (Resool Pookutty) and Best Original Song (A R Rahman) that year. Slumdog Millionaire is the story of an 18-year-old boy Jamal Malik belonging to the slums of Mumbai who enters the TV show ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ To everyone’s surprise, Jamal answers all the questions correctly. How did a boy from the slums answer all the questions? Watch the film to find out!

You must be wondering why I have not included movies adapted from Chetan Bhagat novels? Well, that is because I have an entire post on that! Read more about it here.

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