Bhonsle is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Devashish Makhija and co-produced by Piiyush Singh,[2] The film stars Manoj Bajpayee in the title role: a retired Mumbai police officer who befriends a North Indian girl and her brother who are targeted among other migrants by local politicians.

Constable Bhonsle retires from the Mumbai Police to live in a dilapidated chawl (a small apartment block for factory workers).

Lalu refuses to join Rajendra's gang, but one night is tricked into vandalizing the billboard of Vilas's political party.

Having acquired supplies to fix the billboard, Vilas takes credit when he finds it repainted in the morning.

In 2016, Makhija directed an 11-minute short film titled Taandav starring Manoj Bajpayee, about a head constable who breaks out into a dance to deal with the strains of his life.

The Ganpati festival scene was shot for two days in Mumbai in August, forming a backdrop in the film.

[14] Several scenes were shot in closed narrow spaces as Makhija wanted to "create a sense of suffocation".

[5] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter praised Bajpayee's performance in the film and said that his "hermit retiree emerges as a quiet-spoken hero who opposes the racist hate-mongering around him with cool disdain."

[15] Anupam Kant Verma of Firstpost wrote: "To Makhija’s peculiar blend of technical proficiency and poetic beats, Bajpayee brings the gravitas and masterful restraint that tugs at the kite of the director’s imagination the moment it threatens to pull away, in effect, harmonising the film experience.