Most Bollywood movies are about how the guy gets the girl, the good prevails and love triumphs all. However, that’s not how life works and some movies remind us of that.

A good old happy ending is beautiful but nothing makes you experience catharsis like a romantic tragedy.

1. Sanam Teri Kasam

Although the plot was a little cliché with the nerd girl and bad boy dynamic, the ending was heartbreaking.

Saroo gets abandoned by her family and fiancé, diagnosed with a fatal tumor. She faints and is declared terminal on the day of her wedding to Inder. Her final wish of reuiniting with her father is fulfilled after her death. Meanwhile, Inder stands alone at her grave, talking to whatever it is that is left of her,

2. Hamari Adhuri Kahani

Vasudha escapes an abusive marriage and falls in love, only for her ex-husband to return. Aarav accidentally dies in a forest while chasing the flowers that remind him of Vasudha, giving her a reason to continue living without her ex-husband.

In the end, Vasudha’s ashes are scattered in the same forest where Aarav died, reuniting them after death.

3. Highway

What is more heartbreaking than a kidnapped girl finding home in the kidnapper?

In the end, Veera asks her father why he warned her only about dangerous outsiders and not family members. Finally, she confronts her uncle, in front of the family, for sexually molesting her as a child and her mother for covering it up. She goes to live in the mountains where she starts her own factory and finally lives her dream of living in the mountains.

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4. Aashiqui 2

Aarohi attempts to rehabilitate Rahul through his alcoholism, sacrificing her singing career in doing so.

Eventually, he understands that he has become a burden in her life. The next day, he commits suicide to remove himself from her life and end his struggle. Ultimately, she recovers from the grief and becomes a succesful singer.

5. Ishaqzaade

The rival families decide that Parma and Zoya’s marriage is a stain on their respective religious communities and political careers, and try to kill the couple by joining forces.

Zoya and Parma shoot each other and die in each other’s arms, instead of being killed by their hateful families. It is a real portrayl of young couples being killed in the name of honour, for marrying outside their caste or religion.

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6. Devdas

Family dispute makes Parvati get married to a widower and starts Dev’s dissent into alcoholism. 

Ultimately, he dies outside Parvati’s house and she could not even see him dying.

7. Tere Naam

This is one of Salman Khan’s best performances but has an extremely tragic end. Radhe is an obsessive and abusive lover who loses his sanity after a gang of thugs hit him on his head. He gets sent away from his lover Nirjara and goes through torture to regain his sanity.

Eventually, he becomes normal and returns with the hopes of reuniting with her. However, he breaks after seeing Nirjara’s dead body. Hence, he pretends to be mad and unwell because he has no hope of being okay. He stumbles back to the mental hospital.

8. Lootera

Pakhi loses her father to Varun’s betrayal and is heartbroken. She lives alone in Dalhousie, waiting the last leaf falls from the wilting tree outside the window to fall. That is the day she would die of tuberculosis. She refuses his comfort or explanations.

Varun refuses to escape from the police and stays behind to take care of Pakhi. Her faith remains intact when each day she finds one last leaf remaining on the tree. Eventually, Varun decides to leave the improving Pakhi but gets shot by police. She wakes up, suspicious of the leaf. She discovers that the leaf was painted and tied to the tree by Varun. It was his masterpiece.

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9. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

Two young people, Ram and Leela, fall in love. However, despite eloping, they get caught and are forced to fight against each other due to family rivalries.

The star-crossed relationship is not meant to be. Consequently, they kill each other under the misconception that their families are killing each other and on their way to kill them.

10. Dhadak

The Hindi adaption of Sairat, the movie Dhadak was a heartbreaking tale. Young star-crossed lovers going through hell and back to stay together and make ends meet is a typical Bollywood movie.

However, the end is a harrowing and real end to many love stories in the real world, where honour killings are common.

11. Masaan

Deepak is the youngest, working in the cremation ghats of Varanasi. He dreams of securing an engineering job and not working at the ghats. He falls in love with Shaalu, a high caste girl. She encourages him to focus on getting a good job so they can elope.

However, on a pilgrimage trip with her family, she dies in a bus accident. Her body ends up at the same cremation ground where Deepak’s family works.

12. Bajirao Mastaani

Kashibai deserved better in this movie. After losing her husband to another woman, she is forced to accept their union and helplessly watch him die. At Bajirao’s deathbed, she pleads with his mother to release Mastani for his recovery. However, her pleads fall on deaf ears.

Bajirao and Mastani die simultaneously, one delirious and hallucinating from his illness, the other in captivity. 

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13. Rockstar

The movie had its flaws but the ending was haunting and beautiful. Jordan and Heer having moments of silence in a different world after all the chaos, the Rumi quote and Ranbir Kapoor’s acting definitly made audiences tear up.

The ending suggests that Heer dies in a coma and the Nadaan Parinda has returned home in her spiritual unison with Jordan.

14. Kal Ho Naa Ho

Mere naina meri Naina dhundte hain. Three words to justify the hysterical crying at the end of the movie: Shah Rukh dies.

He sets up Naina and Rohit because his terminal disease did not allow him to express his love for her. And Gia…this is too sad.

15. Raanjhanaa

Abhay Deol and Dhanush became fan favourites through Raanjhanaa. The movie is a whirlwind story of young innocent love turning into an unhealthy obsession and ending up in murder, in the backdrop of communalism and political turmoil.

Who did not cry when Jasjeet and then Kundan passed away? Although Kundan was a problematic character, the monologue accompanying his murder broke the hearts of audiences.

16. Omkara

One of Vishal Bharadwaj’s best adaptions of Shakespeare, Omkara was an adaption of Othello, set in Uttar Pradesh. The movie, like the play, is a tragedy. 

A mistrustful Omkara smothers his faithful and innocent wife, Dolly, suspecting her of being unfaithful. Once he comes to know about it, he commits suicide in the same room.

17. Ghajini

Sanjay sees his fiancé Kalpana die in front of him and loses his memory after getting hit by an iron rod. He goes on living a very difficult and lonely life, in her old apartment, with the only motto now being to kill her killer.

She died believing him to be Sachin, never found out the truth and never bought 3 ambassador cars. Why wouldn’t you cry?

18. Padmaavat

The Jauhar scene, period.

The scene can send chills down your spine and give you goosebumps. The mere thought of the agony women faced during wartime was heart-wrenching. Either a painful death or sexual violence as men’s war prize.

19. Badlapur

Raghu is a simple family man whose world is turned upside down when his wife and child get murdered simply due to wrong timing.

He plans to brutally kill the murderers, transforming from a loving man to a ruthless, raging and revenge-seeking killer.

20. Fanaa

Although we still sing along to Chaand Sifaarish and Tere Haanth Mein, the movie ending had us wiping our eyes.

Zooni is forced to kill Rehan to stop him from killing her, their son and causing more destruction. Although Rehan wanted to give up his life as a terrorist, once deep enough, there is a very slim way out. Zooni loses her lover, raises their son, gets him back and loses him again.

Did you also watch the end credits through tears in your eyes?

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