Based on the life of Milkha Singh, an Indian athlete and Olympian who was a champion of the Commonwealth Games and two-time 400m champion of the Asian Games, it stars Farhan Akhtar in the title role alongside Divya Dutta, Meesha Shafi, Pavan Malhotra, Yograj Singh, Art Malik, and Prakash Raj in supporting roles with Sonam Kapoor in a special appearance.

His memories are full of the chaos surrounding the 1947 Partition of India, which resulted in mass religious violence in Punjab and the killing of Singh's parents.

There, he wins a race in which the top 10 runners are rewarded with milk, two eggs, and are excused from fatigue duty; his running skills are noticed by a havaldar (sergeant).

On the day before selection of the Indian team for the Olympics, Singh is beaten up by senior players whom he had previously defeated.

A montage of tyre training in the cold desert of the Himalayas is depicted, wherein Milkha Singh pushes himself to the brink of absolute exhaustion.

Invited by the prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, to lead the Indian team in Pakistan for a friendly race with Abdul Khaliq, Singh adamantly refuses to go due to the trauma of having to flee his home in the newly formed Pakistan as a child.

Impressed how easily Singh passed the Pakistani athlete and won by a humongous margin, the president of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, gives him the title of "The Flying Sikh".

A final sequence of Milkha Singh is depicted where he is enjoying his victory lap and everybody in the stadium is in awe of what he has achieved.

After the release of Delhi-6 (2009), director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra started developing two projects: a historical love story, Mirza Sahiban, and a biopic of Milkha Singh.

Growing up in Delhi, Mehra was familiar with anecdotes from the life of Milkha Singh, the ace runner popular as the "Flying Sikh".

Gradually, he learns details regarding his early life, including how he witnessed his entire family being killed during the Partition and travelled alone to Delhi as a refugee.

[19] Pakistani actress and singer, Meesha Shafi—who rose to fame with her song "Alif Allah (Jugni)", played RAW agent in the hit Pakistani film Waar, and in 2013 made her Hollywood debut with The Reluctant Fundamentalist—was selected for the role of Perizaad, Singh's friend and a swimmer for team India.

The principal photography commenced in February 2012 and mainly took place in Punjab, India, with some scenes shot in Delhi, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Rome.

[27] That summer, the film received various tax exemptions from Indian state governments: Farhan Akhtar and director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra launched the film's official mobile game at the Reliance Digital electronics store in Times Square on 3 August 2013.

[43] Bollywood Hungama's Taran Adarsh predicted that it would "win accolades, admiration, respect and esteem, besides emerging as a champ",[44] while Emirates 24/7 's Sneha May Francis gave a thumbs up, saying that the film is "truly epic" and that "despite the prestigious Olympic glory eluding him, Mehra deservedly honors the runner's other victories and impeccable talent, allowing us to applaud the prodigy.

"[48] Gayatri Sankar of Zee News wrote, "If you are a patriotic Indian, you will be left teary-eyed and your head held high.

Movies' review summed up, "Mehra has helmed 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' into a compelling story and an exemplar of cinematic brilliance; that it is also an inspiring tale almost seems to be a by-product.

"[5] NDTV echoed the same sentiment, "Bhaag Milkha Singh is a 400 meters sprint that feels like a cross-country race.

"[51] Despite praising the technical aspects and music, Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN criticised the length: "The film itself is well intentioned and shines a light on an important figure.

The film is an ambitious account of the first 27 years or so of celebrated Indian sprinter Milkha Singh's roller-coaster life.

"[54] Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan highly praised it on his blog, describing it as "too emotionally and creatively moving to put anything down in words.

[61] Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter opined that the biopic "requires viewer endurance, but pays off with an exhilarating climax.

"[62] Digital Spy praised the work and said, "It is a blessing that this film was made and the inspiring story of India's greatest sporting hero told to a generation who might otherwise never have known the legend of 'The Flying Sikh.

'"[63] The Washington Post stated that the Bollywood import dramatises the life of famed Indian sprinter Milkha Singh.

[71] Certain members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) boycotted a workshop held in accordance with the Information and Broadcast Ministry's wish citing partially of some officials of the censor board particularly regarding the certificate given to Bhaag Milkha Bhaag which, in spite of a sex scene and some violence, got a U certificate[b] lashing out and criticising the decisions of the censor examining member and former actress, Sharmila Tagore accusing CEO Pankaja Thakur along with some other board officials being puppets controlled by film directors and promoting vulgarity.

[73][clarification needed] As a consequence, the Delhi High Court sought an explanation from the I&B ministry and the CBFC regarding the escalating levels of vulgarity in recent times.