Chhichhore

Chhichhore is the 2019 Hindi-language film directed by Nitesh Tiwari, who had previously made the internationally acclaimed Dangal (2016). Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and released by Fox Star Studios, the film stars Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, and Naveen Polishetty in its ensemble cast.

The film moves between two timelines: the early 1990s, when a group of hostel residents at a competitive engineering college form lasting friendships while navigating constant academic failure, and 2019, when those same characters, now middle-aged, reunite under desperate circumstances. The catalyst is a teenage boy's suicide attempt after failing the JEE engineering entrance exam. To help him recover his will to live, his parents recount the story of their own college years, framing failure not as an ending but as a beginning.

Chhichhore won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi at the 67th National Film Awards in 2021. It received wide critical praise for its warm ensemble performances, its culturally relevant critique of India's exam-driven educational culture, and its emotional range. Nitesh Tiwari drew on his own experiences as a student at IIT Bombay in shaping the film's world.

The film took on additional layers of meaning after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14, 2020. His penultimate screen appearance, and the film's themes of mental health, academic pressure, and the value of life, made Chhichhore a significant cultural artifact in the period of national mourning that followed.

The soundtrack was composed by Pritam Chakraborty with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The album's standout track, "Khairiyat" (sung by Arijit Singh), became one of the most-streamed Indian songs of its era, eventually crossing one billion views on YouTube.