Jaideep Sahni, a screenwriter, was inspired by the India women's national field hockey team's win at the 2002 Commonwealth Games to develop Chak De!

The sports scenes were choreographed by Rob Miller, and the soundtrack was composed by Salim–Sulaiman, with lyrics written by Sahni.

Khan finds himself in charge of a group of 16 young women divided by their fiercely competitive natures and regional prejudices.

Mary Ralte from Mizoram and Molly Zimik, from Manipur in Northeast India, face widespread racial discrimination, and sexual comments from some strangers.

When she finally succeeds, Khan angrily resigns; however, he invites the staff and team to a farewell lunch at McDonald's.

Khan, recognising that they are finally acting as one for the first time, prevents the staff from intervening; he only stops a man from hitting one of the women from behind with a cricket bat.

Khan goes on to train the girls again, which is followed by victories over England, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand, and Argentina.

Just before their game with South Korea, Khan approaches Bindiya, asking her to begin playing once more and break the strategy of 'Man to Man' marking used by the Korean team so they can win the match.

Preeti, in order to prove Abhimanyu a point, is determined to finish as the tournament's leading goal scorer.

Shortly after the film's release, the media began referring to the 16 actresses who portrayed the players as the "Chak De!

[8] A brief article about the victorious women's team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games inspired screenwriter Jaideep Sahni to create a film about the Indian women's hockey team,[12] and he modelled Kabir Khan on hockey coach Maharaj Krishan Kaushik.

[13] After listening to the storyline Kaushik suggested that Sahani meet hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, who faced accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games.

[14][15][16] Shah Rukh Khan stated in a speech delivered at the University of Edinburgh that the phrase Chak De!

was originally "an inspirational martial cry that Sikh soldiers used while lifting logs in order to make bridges across rivers on their campaigns against their enemies.

[19][20] Responding to media reports equating Kabir Khan with Negi, Sahani said: "Our script was written a year and a half back.

I started my research by spending time with hockey players ... It’s just a matter of chance that Negi's story matches with Kabir Khan.

Although Salman Khan was initially signed for the lead role, he later withdrew due to creative differences with director Shimit Amin.

[23] Some media sources called the actor's role offbeat, since it departed from his usual romantic image and included neither lip synched songs nor a single female lead.

A four-month training camp was held where the girls learned the rules of the game, took acting lessons and followed a strict diet; safety precautions were also taken.

[35] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[36] In an NPR interview via affiliate WBUR-FM, Mumbai Mirror columnist Aseem Chhabra called Chak De!

"[41] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express called the film "the most authentic, meticulously researched sports movie India has made".

[42] In Kolkata's Telegraph, Bharathi S. Pradhan wrote that the film combines "an extremely well-knit screenplay with unrelentingly deft direction, 16 unknown, and not even glamorous, girls simply carried you with them, with one single known actor compelling you to watch Chak De India without blinking".

"[46] In The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt wrote that the "technical credits are first rate with excellent cinematography, quicksilver editing, musical montages of practice and a fine use of locations.

"[47] Michael Dequina of themoviereport.com was more critical of the film, giving it 2.5 out of four stars and calling it "a very familiar, very formula underdog sports movie with nothing to distinguish it from similar, equally slick Hollywood product.

India two stars out of four, writing that the film uses "sports-movie conventions to address larger cultural and political issues, and while it doesn't miss a cliche, it also invests every one with vigorous conviction.

"[49] Although Subhash K. Jha gave the film 3.5 stars, calling it "a fairly predictable story" with dialogue "quite often the stuff bumper stickers are made of", he wrote that "Chak De!

India tied with Taare Zameen Par for the Best Film of 2007 according to various Bollywood movie directors such as Madhur Bhandarkar, David Dhawan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Basu, and Sriram Raghavan.

[52] Due to the film's strong critical response, cinema halls reported 80% occupancy for its opening weekend.

[59] According to Salim Merchant, the song "almost became the sports anthem of the country, especially after India won the Cricket World Cup 2011.".