Indian Army

Manekshaw's family

Government of India

Pakistan Army

British Raj

United States Department of State

Imperial Japanese Army

Cameo Appearance

• Kalki Koechlin in a Special appearance in the song "Dum Hai Toh Aaja"

Development

In 2017 Meghna Gulzar narrated the story of the biopic on Sam Manekshaw on the sets of Raazi which she planned to make her next film. Kaushal impressed by the idea decided that he would play the character.^[9] She then went for years of extensive research and writing collaborating with Bhavani Iyer and Shantanu Srivastava, also meeting with family members of Sam Manekshaw.^[10][11] The film marks the second collaboration between Gulzar and Kaushal. In 2021, the film was announced by RSVP Movies on the 107th birth anniversary of late Sam Manekshaw.^[12][13]

The film was filmed with real Indian army personnel.^[14][15]

Casting

In December 2021, Shaikh and Malhotra joined the cast, marking their second collaboration after their debut film, Dangal.^[16][17] Kabi joined the cast in September 2022 to portray the role of Jawaharlal Nehru marking his second collaboration with Gulzar after Talvar.^[18] Kaushal has gone through extensive training in the army under the guidance of the Indian Army's 6 Sikh Regiment in preparing for his role.^[19] Kaushal in an interview with Film Companion revealed that the character would be his toughest onscreen role to date.^[20] The film will not have junior artists and instead real-life army personnel and people from the Defence Force have been cast.^[21]

Filming

The Principal photography commenced on 8 August 2022.^[22][23] The film was shot over two years in 13 locations in India covering four decades of the life of Sam Manekshaw.^[24] Filming took place in Mumbai, Pune, Jodhpur, Pataudi, Chandigarh, Ooty, Dehradun, Kolkata,^[25] Patiala,^[26] Srinagar, Pahalgam,^[27] and Delhi.^[28] The team wrapped on 14 March 2023.^[29][30]

Theatrical

The first teaser was unveiled on 1 December 2022.^[36] On 13 October 2023 the official teaser was released by the RSVP production.^[37]

The film was theatrically released on 1 December 2023, clashing with Ranbir Kapoor's Animal.^[38]

Home media

The film premiered on OTT platform ZEE5 on 26 January 2024.^[39][40]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10.^[41] Sam Bahadur received mixed reviews from critics.

Catherine Bray of The Guardian rated the film 3 stars and stated "The incidents and set-pieces are neat, but the structure is episodic. It's a perennial problem for biopics; how to give events the momentum of fiction when the underlying narrative is fact."^[42]

Subhash K. Jha of Times Now rated 3.5 stars out of 5, praised Kaushal's acting and stated "I am afraid Vicky Kaushal, a reasonably talented actor, is not equal to the task. He tries hard to echo the original's three Bs —bravery, benevolence and bravado. But mimicking the original doesn’t quite amount to a comprehensive character creation."^[43] Anuj Kumar of The Hindu wrote, "When the screenplay flattens, Vicky does the heavy lifting to keep the mission on course and after a point, the screenplay does become a series of snapshots of his long list of accomplishments set to a rousing background score, but Sam Bahadur has enough firepower to keep us invested."^[44] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave a rating 2.5/5 and wrote "It's hard to play a character so closely without becoming a caricature, but Kaushal becomes Sam Bahadur."^[45] A critic from Bollywood Hungama awarded the film 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Sam Bahadur is a well-intentioned biopic and showcases Vicky Kaushal like never before. But it suffers due to the docudrama treatment."^[46] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave a rating of 3.5/5 and wrote "It would be easy to describe Sam Bahadur as a Vicky Kaushal show because it is who dominates every major scene in the film, but Meghna Gulzar balances between ambition and restraint, neither the spirited central performance nor its emotional payoff would have been quite as remarkable."^[47] Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave a rating of 2.5/5 and wrote, "Nothing that the movie tells isn't already available in the public domain."^[48] Tushar Joshi of India Today gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 and stated "Production and set design, costumes and make-up department score big too. One wishes the direction and writing was on the same page as its technical counterpart."^[49] Anusha Sundar of The New Indian Express opined "Sam Bahadur would have definitely sounded good on paper. Honestly, it does feel the makers were going for a simplistic approach to tell the story of a man whose uniform is adorned with the highest honours. But somewhere, the film loses its charm and settles for mediocre storytelling for a glorious tale."^[50] Business Today critic Anwesha Madhukalya stated "The no-nonsense army chief, speaks out when and as he pleases, but is never cruel or ruthless to his juniors. That’s where the magic of Gulzar and co’s writing lies."^[51]

Writing a review Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (also for Rediff.com) praised Meghna Gulzar's effort and stated "You have to grant it to Meghna's research team and those sourcing military hardware for the film."^[52]

Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in wrote "Gulzar’s screenplay, written with Bhavani Iyer and Shantanu Srivastava, has a little bit of everything and nothing about any one thing in particular."^[53] Shomini Sen of WION wrote in her review "Unfortunately, Sam Bahadur falters ever so often. This, despite the fact that Kaushal looms large on screen with his exceptional performance."^[54]

Box office

The film was released alongside Animal on 1 December 2023. On its first day, the film collected ₹6.25 crore, the second day ₹9 crore and the third day ₹10.30 crore. The film has earned ₹110.69 crore (US$14 million) in India and ₹17.48 crore (US$2.2 million) in overseas for a worldwide gross collection of ₹128.17 crore (US$16 million).^[5][55][56]