General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Bhola Bhala (भोला भाला)

Bhola Bhala (भोला भाला) is a 1978 Hindi-language Indian film directed by Satpal and produced by V. Gopikrishna for Venkateshwara Pictures, Bombay, starring Rajesh Khanna in a double role as an honest insurance agent and the dacoit he accidentally insures.¹^•² It was released in India on 25 April 1978 with a U (unrestricted) censor certificate.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Release	25 April 1978, India; Hindi language; U certificate (Bombay U-87198)¹^•³
Director / producer	Satpal; V. Gopikrishna, for Venkateshwara Pictures, Bombay¹
Lead cast	Rajesh Khanna (Ram Kumar Verma / Nathu "Nathiya" Singh), Rekha (Champa), Moushumi Chatterjee (Renu), Joginder Shelly (Sambha)²
Music	Rahul Dev Burman; lyrics by Anand Bakshi; playback by Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, and Lata Mangeshkar⁴
Censor record	16 reels, 3,912.21 meters, running time 142 minutes 37 seconds, certified 25.04.1978¹
Writers	Madhusudan Kalelkar, Ramesh Pant (screenplay and dialogue), and V.K. Sharma⁵
Audience rating	6.4/10 on IMDb from 45 votes⁵

Spoilers

Plot

Ram Kumar Verma is an honest but unsuccessful insurance agent whose poor performance and a quick settlement for Renu and her mother get him transferred to Madhya Pradesh. On the train journey he meets Nathu Singh and, believing him to be a man of wealth, gets him to insure himself for Rs. 500,000 (Rs. 5 lakhs). Back at the office his manager discovers that the insured man is actually the wanted dacoit Daku Nathiya, sought by the police dead or alive, and coerces Ram to return and get the policy canceled.⁶

On the way to meet Nathiya, Ram saves Nathiya's son from a burning house and earns the gratitude of Nathiya and his woman, Champa. Ram learns that Nathiya was once Nathu Singh, an honest villager whose wife was raped and killed by the rich village lord Thakur Ajit Singh; unable to get justice, Nathu became the dacoit Nathiya. Nathiya agrees to cancel the policy, but his lieutenant Sambha rebels and keeps Ram, and later Renu, prisoner while the police mount a dragnet for Nathiya.⁶

Cast and crew

Rajesh Khanna carries the double role of Ram Kumar Verma and Nathu "Nathiya" Singh. Rekha plays Champa, Moushumi Chatterjee plays Renu, Joginder Shelly plays Sambha, Ramesh Deo plays Thakur Ajit Singh, Deven Verma plays Babu Khan, and Aruna Irani plays Nathu Singh's wife.²^•⁷ The wider cast includes Satyendra Kapoor, Kumari Naaz as Sarla, Mumtaz Begum as Ram's mother, Sulochana Latkar as Renu's mother, Pinchoo Kapoor as the general manager of the insurance company, Jagdeep, Raj Mehra, and Aruna Irani.¹^•⁸

Behind the camera, V. Subbarao was the director of photography, B. S. Glaad was the editor, Desh Mukherjee the art director, and Bhanu Athaiya handled costume design; Suresh Bhatt and Kamal were the choreographers.⁴^•²

Music

The songs were composed by Rahul Dev Burman with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and were sung by Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, and Lata Mangeshkar; the record company was Polydor Records.¹^•⁴ The title song, "Main Bhola Bhala Hoon, Bhole Dilavala Hoon, Duniya Mujhako Kya Jane Duniya Se Nirala", is sung by Kishore Kumar.¹ The soundtrack also includes "Dheere Dheere Naach Re Jogan", "Waqt Waqt Ki Baat", "Kaali Kaali Raton Mein", "Jhuk Gayi Ankhen", and "Kal Ki Fikar".²

One database, Bollywood Hungama, lists the music directors as Anandji, Kalyanji, and Kalelkar rather than R. D. Burman; most other sources, including IMDb and the Hindi film database, credit R. D. Burman.⁷^•⁴

Reception

According to a retrospective account of Rajesh Khanna's career, Bhola Bhala recovered its cost within 8 weeks of release and ran for 15 to 20 weeks, but because it did not complete a 25-week run it was not publicized as a hit in 1978. Critics criticized the film on one specific ground: Khanna's second character, the villain, was not voiced by Khanna himself but dubbed by someone else.⁹ A song-a-day archive describes the film as one of Khanna's forgotten movies that received a lukewarm response from moviegoers, noting that by the late 1970s the "angry young man" genre had displaced the kind of films that had made Khanna a superstar.¹⁰

On aggregate rating sites the film holds an IMDb rating of 6.4/10 from 45 votes, while Rotten Tomatoes shows no critic reviews and fewer than 50 audience ratings.⁵^•¹¹ A Quebec film classification record lists a 136-minute color version classified on 9 January 2008.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1970s › Released 1976 to 1979

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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