Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Thursday, May 14, 2026
7–11 pm
$20 Regular • $18 Friends • $15 Students and Seniors
Tickets to this program include Museum admission.
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ashutosh Gowariker’s landmark film, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, an epic story of resilience, resistance, and collective hope set against the backdrop of British colonial rule.
Presented in connection with the Aga Khan Museum’s exhibition, Game On!, this screening explores how games and sports can become powerful spaces of strategy, identity, and social meaning. In Lagaan, cricket is more than a contest. It becomes a field of negotiation, teamwork, and resistance, transforming a colonial game into a vehicle for solidarity and agency.
This special anniversary screening invites audiences to revisit a defining work of 21st century Indian cinema, celebrated for its unforgettable performances, stirring music, and enduring portrait of a community rising together in the face of impossible odds.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Produced by and starring Aamir Khan, with music by A.R. Rahman, the film follows the drought-stricken villagers of Champaner, who are burdened by an unjust land tax and challenged by British officers to a high stakes game of cricket. With their future on the line, the villagers must learn an unfamiliar sport and come together across differences to fight for dignity, survival, and self-determination.
Blending historical drama, musical spectacle, romance, and sport, Lagaan remains one of Indian cinema’s most beloved modern classics. Set in 1893 during the British Raj, the film uses cricket as a lens through which to explore colonial power, rural life, social hierarchy, and the struggle to reclaim agency under empire. Its sweeping scale and emotional force helped bring Indian popular cinema to a global audience, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Presented in partnership with the Canada Literature Festival, the Classic Legends International Film Festival, and the Indo-Canada Arts Council
Government Partners
