Sholay (1975)
Think dosti and you are sure to think of Sholay and its famous song Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge. Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) are thick as thieves who even go to jail together. The movie epitomises all those clichés of male bonding — from helping a friend get the girl to actually giving up one’s life for the friend, all against the backdrop of terror and machismo. Fortunately, it stops short of having both of them fall for the same girl. Actor Luke Kenny, whose favourite film is Sholay, says, “It has one of the finest depictions of friendship on screen. Every time I see it, it is emotional and very touching. I think it set the benchmark for depictions of friendship in Hindi movies.”

Dostana (1980)
This one doesn’t stop at anything. Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha, friends since college, end up falling in love with the same girl. This breaks up their friendship. Each ends up sacrificing his love for the sake of the friend. With a group of villains mixing up the equation, at one point, it seems like the two heroes will never get together again. But since it’s a Hindi movie, all’s well that ends well.

Director Sachin Khot remembers it even though he saw it as a child. “In today’s times, the relationship might seem implausible because you have an inspector, who is fighting criminals, being friends with a lawyer who is helping those criminals escape the jail. But I feel it was a unique relationship. I still remember the friendship song, Bane chahe dushman.

Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
How can we ever forget the inimitable trio of Akash (Aamir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) and Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna). Fresh out of college, these not-so-young dudes are poised to enter the real world. The strain of a certain relationship that Siddharth develops severs this till-then-unbreakable friendship. Of course, when a crisis comes, all is forgotten and the trio, we hope, live happily ever after. Says Kenny, “DCH is in a league of its own. It is not just about the friendship of these three heroes but also about how they use it as a guide for their other relationships.”

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)
The film is unusual in one sense — it shows the friendship of two girls rather than the conventional male bonding. Anjali (Kajol) and Tina (Rani Mukerji) form a quick and unique bond, which breaks when Tina realises that Anjali too is in love with Rahul (ahem, Shah Rukh Khan). Strangely though, the two women do not fight over the guy. There is an intuitive understanding between the two girls that shows the depth of their friendship. Says Sudhanshu Pandey: “True friendship has to be selfless which is how it is in the film. The film is beautiful because all three of them are good friends, they understand each other as human beings even if they fight.”